Before you ignore this post and write it off as too legalistic or something like that, keep reading…

I was pondering things, as I do, this morning.  My brain likes to ponder things.  And I was saying one of my morning prayers as I was getting ready to go outside to let the chickens out of the coop.

And, really, I say it every time I put on the rubber boots.  “Please, God, don’t let there be a spider in my boots.”

Do you have a prayer like this?  Maybe not necessarily about a spider.

For awhile, after I found a garter snake chilling on my bedroom floor, I prayed that I wouldn’t find another snake in my bedroom.

Maybe you pray, “Please, God, give me patience.  I know some animals eat their young, but I’d like to not be that animal.  But these kids sure are tempting.”

Or maybe, “God, keep me sane.”

Or, “Please, make the pain go away!  Or at least enough to keep me from lashing out because of it.”

Not exactly the prayers that you were expecting, right?  But you can probably relate.

If you commute any kind of distance, maybe you pray for patience with your fellow commuters.  You pray for no red lights, no traffic accidents, no patrol cars out checking speed, no crazy people who never use their blinkers when changing lanes.  I know I’ve talked to God about all of that.  I’ve also imagined that scene from Bruce Almighty where he parts the traffic in front of him.

If you have to take phone calls at your desk, I know you’ve prayed for that phone to not ring at 4:55pm, because you know that whoever it is on the line is not going to respect your time and take less than 4 minutes.

Or if you have that kind of boss, you know what kind, that every time they ask you to come to their office, you pray that they’re in a good mood and whatever they want to talk to you about won’t result in a reprimand or a dressing down.  Dressing down.  Isn’t that such a nice way to say chewing out, ripping to shreds?

I know that a lot of the time, I think that maybe God doesn’t like all of these prayers because they’re not “holy” enough.  I’m not using “holy” enough language.  I’m just talking to Him about “selfish” stuff.  Why am I not praying for world peace, poverty, orphans, wars, etc?  God’s probably not listening to me because I’m praying these “selfish” prayers.

But, you know, I don’t think God minds.  He likes it when we talk to Him.  And I know that He wants us to listen when He talks to us.  He does want to pray those “unselfish” prayers, too.  Those types of prayers are necessary to our relationship with God.

But those aren’t the only prayers we can pray.

So, the next time you find yourself praying about something that seems trivial, remind yourself that it’s all part of the relationship: the small stuff and the big stuff.