Pray without ceasing

I love studies on prayer, books about prayer, short blurbs about prayer, Bible studies about prayer... I. Love. Prayer.

Philippians 4:6

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

Prayer is our direct line to talk to God, to have a truly meaningful two way relationship with our creator. It's a beautiful and magnificent gift that's been given to us.
There are times where I lay awake at night that I find peace in conversation with God. I can't imagine a world without prayer, without this lifeline to God. There are times where we feel so hopeless and so broken and so hurt by the world and those of the world that only the creator of the world could truly understand (because he can see into our heart and soul and knows our deepest hurts and struggles) and we have this gift to be able to talk to him about it and know that he hears us.

Psalm 34:17
When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles.

I recently did a study on raising children to be grateful and thankful and one of the biggest things that I took away from it is praying more with your children (particularly prayers of thanksgiving and gratitude) and I feel like that's opened up a whole other side of things that I wasn't fully taking advantage of. Sure I would pray with my kids, especially at meal times or if there was something specifically on their minds, but now I'll pray with them when we're laying in bed together or when we're just driving in the car. I want my kids to know that prayer is more than just sitting down and giving God a laundry list of things that you want, it's a daily conversation that's ongoing and ever-changing and that He listens to our hearts even even when we don't know the words that we need to say.

Romans 8:26
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.

Prayer is powerful. Pray for your children daily. Pray for your spouse and your marriage daily. Pray that God uses you to your fullest potential and that you allow it to happen. Beautiful things happen when you pray.