Dear Lord,

So far today, I’m doing all right. I haven’t gossiped, lost my temper, been greedy, nasty, selfish or self-indulgent. I haven’t lied, complained, cursed, had lustful thoughts or invoked anger in my children. I haven’t been prideful, worshipped other gods, desired worldly goods, misused your name, stolen anything or given false testimony against another.

But I will be getting out of bed in a minute and I think that I will really need your help then.

Amen.

I am self-conscious about how my own prayers sound. Sometimes I mess up and stutter in prayer, and I start over because I feel bad. I want to know if it is something that just comes to you naturally, or… what? Like, I listen to the prayers that my pastor gives and mine just pale in comparison. Every night I usually have my husband lead us in grace before dinner, because I feel I’d sound dumb or say something dumb and have to start over.

First of all, there is the issue of how long a person has been a Christian, as compared to how long you have been one. The relevance here is the extent of their experience with the language of the faith. Obviously the Christian community has a unique language for expressing the faith, and the longer that a person is a Christian the more familiar, knowledgeable, and comfortable he or she becomes with that language. That lends to an appearance of eloquence that is difficult to imitate for someone who is perhaps not quite as familiar with the breadth of the language; e.g., it is not difficult to imagine how grandiose and eloquent the prayer of a career pastor must seem to someone who has been a Christian for only a month.

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How to Pray Aright
John Burton

I often say my prayers—but do I ever pray?
Do the feelings of my heart go with the words I say?
It is useless to implore unless I feel my need,
Unless it is from a sense of want that all my prayers proceed.
I might as well bow down and worship gods of stone,
As offer to the living God a prayer of words alone.
For words without the heart the Lord will never hear,
Nor will he ever those regard whose prayers are insincere.
Lord! Teach me what I want, and teach me how to pray,
Nor let me ever implore thy grace not feeling what I say.