Sweet Seconds of Prayer

Recently, I prayed for the stupidest thing.

After buying a cheap Nextar MP3 player from XS Cargo (great store with low prices), I took it out of the plastic baggie and tried out the earbuds. Somewhere along the way, I lost said earbuds. The whole time I was retracing my steps saying, "C'mon God, why? This is so stupid! I don't get it! It's not weird, just STUPID!" After realizing I was stupid, I figured I'd buy another set of earbuds from the dollar store. Then I do stupid thing #2: I try them in the player AFTER I leave the store and find out, much to my dismay, that the jack is too small. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Stupid me for praying about something so trivial. And yet....

Hi. I'm Laura Chambers, and I have PrayDD. That's right. Prayer Deficit Disorder. I pray every day, but unless something affects me greatly (like the earbuds[?!]), I can't really stay in a prayer for more than seconds. Maybe it's because I'm talking to God and not a person right in front of me who can say "Not so fast, Laura!" and grab my attention and force me to stay in one place and listen. And then sometimes, seconds are all I have, because I have to set the table, or answer a question somebody asks me. Plus there's the awkward, "What are you doing?" or barge-into-my-room-unannounced moments. I'd love to say, "Praying; can you leave until I'm finished/give me a minute?" But no.

That's why I like to go home from the library alone, with God, my MP3 player, and the weather, beautiful or lousy. But even then, I'd rather sing. I say to myself, "I connect better through music than speaking prayer. It feels more natural." Or am I selfish?

I also have a bad habit of praying for someone once and forgetting it later. Or feeling guilty over praying for Christian celebrity tweeps and forgetting my other friends. Or not being able to pray for EVERYONE without feeling like it's too easy, a blanket solution where I say I care for everyone but is it really no one?

But then I'm reminded God prefers quality over quantity, every time:

""And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him." (Matthew 6:5-8)

So it can be an hour or seconds, but if I mean it, God loves it. (By the way, the headphones I already had work with the player!!! Though it's a battery eater.)