Discipleship Go: Pray 1

Friday night was lasagna night at my house. I am not a huge fan of making lasagna just because of the time it takes. I know some of you might be thinking, “But you like cooking?” Yes I do, but to me lasagna is basically spaghetti with cottage cheese. (Sorry ricotta lovers. I’m still old school, the way my mom made it.) You have the sauce, meat, and noodles, and then you bake it. It lengthens the process of a basic meal. It is not that I am opposed to lasagna, but rather the work involved to make something that I could do in less time. I make a baked spaghetti dish to use spaghetti leftovers, and it is basically the same thing. My kids have recently been watching Garfield, so they have been curious about lasagna. (Lasagna is Garfield’s favorite food.) They’ve had it before, but they just don’t remember. My mother-in-law usually makes it for us in the winter. One day Gavin said, “Dad, can we make lasagna?” to which I responded begrudgingly, “Yes.” Then came the plaguing question of when.  “Dad, are we going to do it today?” he would ask. I tried to explain the work involved, but it was still hard for him to understand.

Finally, this past Friday, we had lasagna night. I made my sauce as I usually do, giving it the two hours it needs to cook. I got the meat ready and added it to the sauce. I did cheat a little, though, by getting the ready-to-bake noodles. Since the kids were all interested in making it with me, I set up stations so that everyone could help. Abby and Gavin made little lasagnas, and Jacob and I worked on the big one. Gavin was so excited, but yet critical because his lasagna didn’t look exactly the same as the one in the show. I told him that it was partially because he made a little one. That just meant he wanted a piece of the big lasagna so that it looked the same.  

Gavin knows he can ask me for something, within reason, and I will try and fulfill it. I may even fulfill it in a better way than what he asked for, like by being able to make his own personal lasagna. If I were in the pattern of not fulfilling requests, there would be no need to ask, or annoy me about when it will happen. Gavin was confident I would fulfill his request, even if his pouty face or repetitious words weren’t displaying that message leading up to lasagna day. On lasagna day, my words were confirmed, and so was what he has come to know about his dad.

Jesus is even better than that. He fulfills exactly what He says and always takes care of His children. When Jesus opened the door up for prayer and constant communication with God, we got the chance to talk to Him at any moment. The more we learn about Jesus the more we know and see how He fulfills His promise in our lives. We pray with expectation and anticipation that God will provide. As God refines us through His Word, our expectations and anticipation are rarely disappointed. And if we are disappointed, perhaps we should take an honest look into our hearts, where we might find selfish and sinful desires.

Every day we wake up, we can start our day in dialogue with God. This is an awesome blessing! The world can be such a bleak place, but our dialogue with God reminds us of how Jesus fulfilled exactly what He said, and He will continue to do that in our lives. When we talk about Pray 1, we talk about not forgetting to talk to Jesus during our day. Communication with Jesus is a very important blessing that can easily fall to the wayside in the busyness of life. When we incorporate Pray 1 in our lives, we are able to refocus, and be reminded of Jesus’ deep love for us.