The Spiritual Me Chronicles: Kitchen Sink Praying

I began to wonder how I came to be the Spiritual Me that I am today. Who and what were the influences that helped to create me? How did I get here? I'm going to take a few posts to explore my influences. 

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My grandma Jessie was my first memory of Spiritual influence. Not only did she teach me the 23rd Psalm. But she also taught me the Lord's Prayer from Matthew 6

Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread.  And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen

But she did more than teach me to memorize the words, she modeled what prayer should look like.

I cannot count how many times I would come upon my grandma speaking in this kind of loud whisper, like she was talking to herself. She'd do it while she was standing at the kitchen sink washing dishes. She did it when she was standing over the stove cooking. She did it when she was hanging clothes out on the line. She did it everywhere and all the time. I remember as a very little girl asking, "who are you talking to Grandma?" and she'd say, "I'm talking to the Lord." 

She talked to God all of the time. All. of. the. time. Hear me when I say. It became such a normal thing for my childhood, to try and catch what grandma was saying to God. Of course I thought it was funny was I was little, watching my grandma talk to herself. I don't think I ever did make out what she was saying! 

And truly, looking back, it didn't matter what she said. What she was teaching me was that her relationship with God was not limited to Sunday mornings, or Wednesday night prayer meetings. Prayer wasn't reserved for kneeling by your bedside at night. Prayer was for all the time and in every circumstance and situation.

She took everything to God. She stayed before the Lord about her 5 children and her grandchildren, her husband, her family, her bills, her needs and wants. She wasn't shy about talking to Him anywhere and everywhere. And in doing that she showed me that God was *always* there, ever present and ever listening.

Imagine the power of learning from the beginning of your life that God's presence was near. That He was so accessible that all you had to do was open your mouth and talk. It didn't have to be from the pulpit. Your prayers are just as effective at the kitchen sink as they are at the altar.

When I think back on it, it was such a blessed thing to have experienced. To see how God used Jessie to set me up for becoming my Spiritual self. Because of course it didn't take long for me to find myself doing the very same thing when I got older. It was instinctual to do it. To pray in the car, or the shower, or at work or lying in bed or doing the laundry.

I hope Jessie knows how big of an impact she had on my when I was just a tiny little thing. Her teaching me not only the words to say but the fearlessness in saying them whenever and wherever.

Nothing fancy, no big words and demonstrations, just talking to God.

Thanks Grandma!

In love,
Mona