Mary Oliver, "Praying"

To pray is a serious thing. We must all take prayer seriously and know that our heart and mind are focused on God when we pray. We should remember that God listens to our hearts, not just our mouths. He knows when we are just giving Him lip service. That being said, I loved this poem. I think it describes the true nature of prayer and how it isn't just a platform for people to sound religious. Our words don't have to be philosophical or poetic, but honest and from the heart. When is the last time an one of us just came to God and said, "God, I am an idiot, and I don't deserve Your grace." This to me is how we should all start out our prayers. We spend t much time asking for things and not enough telling God how awesome He is.

My favorite part of the poem is when Mary Oliver said that we don't need to give Him lilies, but weeds from open lot will do. There is a story n the Bible off a rich man who comes to the temple to give an offering and he gave a large amount, but then a poor old woman also came to the temple to give and offering, and she a gave two copper pieces which was all that she had. Jesus then asked His disciples who gave the most. The answer was the woman, because she gave something hat meant more to her than the rich man. We should take this lesson to heart. Even when we don't have the most we should give what we cherish the most, and sometimes that is just our time. What f God kept a time sheet of how much we pend on face before Him in prayer. Wouldn't it be sad if we only spent a total of a month of our lives in prayer.