Prayer . . . Frustrating

If I have prayed it once, it's been thousands of times. English, German, Spanish, Polish. Most times it starts automatically and powers through to the end - it's over before you know it and it seems not a word meant a thing.

Is it because of its nature as a form prayer? Is there value to such prayer. Even as I go to this prayer with real intention, it drifts by - no matter how hard I try to concentrate on it. Like a road with a thousand forks, I keep taking one to distraction. Frustrating.

But then Jesus tells us to keep asking -- and to ask rightly. I ask him, "How can I ask rightly if I can't really ask at all?"

Phrase by phrase. Word by word. Taking the petitions backwards. I've done it all. "Teach us to pray" say the disciples. I am with them 100%. "Teach me, Lord. I can't seem to manage it alone."

-- read Luke 11:1-13