taken from wikipedia...

Lately my main focus has been on prayer and getting back into the groove of praying. As I shudder in this moment thinking about presenting my senior project in a mere 3 1/2 hours I need to turn my attention to prayer more than ever. Of course, my mind wondered what might pop up if I googled prayer and the first link was, of course, from wikipedia. So, I clicked on it and here is "prayer" according to everyone's favorite online encloypedia:

Prayer is the act of attempting to communicate, commonly with a sequence of words, with a deity or spirit for the purpose of worshipping, requesting guidance, requesting assistance, confessing sins, as an act of reparation or to express one's thoughts and emotions. The words of the prayer may take the form of intercession, a hymn, incantation or a spontaneous utterance in the person's praying words. Secularly, the term can also be used as an alternative to "hope".

I'd have to say this is a great definition, but I hated seeing prayer described like this. For me, it should be thought of as something more personal. When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray he gave them the Lord's Prayer, which we all know by heart (or at least we can paraphrase it pretty effectively). However, I dutifully looked it up for anyone who didn't grow up having to recite this from the age of 5....

Matthew 6:5-15
5"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. 6But 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. 7And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

9"This, then, is how you should pray:
" 'Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
10your kingdom come,
your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
11Give us today our daily bread.
12Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one. 14For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

Now, correct me if I'm wrong but do any of us prayer like this each time we talk to God? No, it's merely a blueprint we should use to guide us. Our prayers should not fit the cookie cutter definition seen in wikipedia. They become useful when we connect to God through them. A prayer's purpose should not be that of a time clock... something we merely do to punch in our worship time for the day. Prayer is a gift. Let us remember to use it as Jesus intended, rather than focusing on what we should be saying... Let us speak from our hearts, that is all.