Day One

“A wise rabbi once told me that it is not how many prayers we don’t say that matters to God, but rather how many we do.” – Phyllis Tickle, The Divine Hours

Today marks the beginning of my Lenten journey of prayer and reflection and observing The Hours of prayer with the Lord. I was up at 6:30 this morning to begin this time of communion with the Lord and already on the first day and experiencing some of the strains and struggles of maintaining a discipline. I had chosen 6:30am for my morning prayers as it is about thirty minutes before my children get out of bed in the morning and I thought it would be a time that I could pray undisturbed, but a time that would also not rob my family of my presence and my involvement in the morning routine. However this morning my two boys had different plans. Up early and demanding attention they not only kept me from sleeping well during the half—hour preceding my 6:30 alarm, but they also upon hearing me get out of bed demanded my attention and their morning drink routine to be commenced.

It may not seem like much to endure a seven minute delay in getting to Morning Prayer – especially when the prayers themselves only take about 10 minutes to accomplish, but it threw me off my rhythm and for a brief moment risked derailing the whole enterprise before it got started. At 6:37 though, my boys with sippy cups full of chocolate milk in hand (my boys get the brown stuff once a day – it just happens to be first thing in the morning in our house) and with instructions not to emerge from their rooms until after 7:00, I settled into the loveseat in the basement and began my new daily ritual of morning prayers.

As I prayed those prayers and allowed the Lord to wash over me with His Word, those seven minutes didn’t seem to matter so much anymore. And when at 7:20 my kids came down the basement stairs to greet me with morning kisses and hugs (and to get me to turn on the Wii so they could play Super Mario Bros.) I no longer felt hurried or cheated, but grateful for the time I had, and the affection I was receiving from my boys. In the grand scheme of things those seven minutes weren’t important to my prayer life – but they were important to Jack and Harry. The prayer that did matter was the silent prayer of gratitude I got to utter to God for my children as I set them up on the Wii and went upstairs to have my breakfast.

Prayer for today:

“Lord God, almighty and everlasting Father, you have brought me in safety to this new day:  Preserve me with your mighty power, that I may not fall into sin, nor be overcome by adversity; and in all I do, direct me to the fulfilling of your purpose; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.”