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“Lord, help us!” flew out of her mouth a split second before we were nearly rear-ended by a car.

“Which card, Lord, would be the best for my grieving friend?” she asked in the card aisle at Target. 

“Lord, I trust you. I trust you. I trust you,” her soul cried as she went about her daily duties and thought of her daughter in a difficult and dangerous circumstance. 

These women modeled to me the heart of a child walking hand in hand with their Father, sharing their heart with Him, blurting out their spur of the moment thoughts in spur of the moment places. They modeled prayer. There is a time for the discipline of prayer – a set aside time devoted to a prayer list or concerns. I need that, too. But I’ve been thinking about child-like prayer.

You know why the dye-filled, sugar-laden, colorful cereals are on the bottom shelves in the grocery lane, don’t you? (If not, go shopping with a child. You’ll find out right quick). Do you ever feel like that child when you try to pray? You know what I mean? Distracted. Tempted by what I think I need. Zero focus. My mind darting from one colorful box of cereal to another. How am I supposed to pray when I can’t even stay focused? Perhaps that is the place where relational conversation with our Father in Heaven is forged. What is distracting? Use that as a “rabbit trail” of pressing into the love of a Father who already knows what’s distracting and talk to Him about it.

What is worrying or causing anxiety that keeps you from “focusing on your prayer list” (or reading scripture)? Talk to your Father, who “inhabits eternity” and “who knows the end from the beginning and from ancient times, things not yet done” … oh, and who already knows what worries you, who has allowed the circumstances causing worry, and who waits to hear all that you are thinking. He wants relationship with us, His children.

I don’t think that children come up with the right words, said the right way, with the exact right attitude before they relate with their parents.  At least mine don’t. They ask, they share, they complain, they laugh, they say what’s on their mind. There isn’t a formula or a perfect method, and perhaps that’s the point of child-like prayer. 

The point isn’t always about affecting an answer; it is often more about the process. Sometimes I’ve had the thought that if I pray correctly, with the right attitude and words, blessing will follow. Here’s the problem with that. Prayer becomes a formula for getting the cereal on the bottom shelf, and not about getting more of my Father. It makes prayer about me. What’s worse is God’s character becomes defined by how He answers, not by who He says He is. It is no longer about relating with my Abba. 

The process of talking with God throughout the day and night as needs, worries, joys and gratitude come to mind brings friendship with the Lord - the One who does all things well, the One who always does what’s good (He gets to define “good”), the One who calls the stars by name, and the One who knows every hair on your head and every feather on every sparrow. The process of childlike prayer begins to get at the heart of “My Father, Who art in Heaven”. It begins to acknowledge that, “…the power of prayer does not reside in the place where it starts but in the place it reaches” (Alec Moyter). 

Of course, like a child asking for cereal, we ask our Father for needs and wants, but the cream is in the fact that we have a Father to ask. He is better than the cereal. Like my friends, we too can cry out for help, ask for direction, and rehearse the nature of God in difficult situations as we share our heart with Him and blurt out our spur of the moment thoughts in spur of the moment places. No formula needed. No perfection required. Just a child, distracted as they may be, enjoying the process of walking hand in hand with their Father.