Persistently consistent prayers
Here's the secret to praying often
I never expected to learn a valuable life lesson from a Pokemon game, but let me tell you the story of Pokemon Sleep.
I may have mentioned this before, so forgive me if I have, but this is too good not to share again.
Pokemon Sleep is an app that Pokemon International has developed in an attempt to make a sort of “lifestyle brand” out of the Pokemon franchise.
They made Pokemon Go in 2016 so that people would go out, explore, and adventure outside.
Then, they made Pokemon Smile to encourage people to develop good toothbrushing habits in order to capture Pokemon as they brushed their teeth.
And, now, they have Pokemon Sleep which is designed to encourage you to develop good sleep habits and get more sleep.
And I loved all of it!
Here’s the unexpected thing from Pokemon Sleep, though…I started cheating…
What are ya gonna do, right?
I wanted to maximize my sleep hours…without having to actually go to sleep.
So I started “putting my phone to bed” before I would actually go to sleep myself.
This made it so my final hours before actually going to bed, I wouldn’t be on my phone at all.
No doom scrolling.
No screens five inches from my face for an hour.
And I would sleep so incredibly well.
But, I only experienced this because I did it every single night for 120 days before I started to realize the benefits of my new habit of “putting my phone to bed.”
This means that, in our prayer life, we have to commit to a habit for quite a while before we might start to really, deeply recognize the benefits of the habit.
So, here’s the big secret to praying often so that you can start reaping these benefits: remind yourself to pray.
Start making the habit to associate certain tasks, people, places, things, etc. with prayer.
Then, every time that topic pops up, you pray.
Here’s a quick example:
You have a commute to work and your car is red.
Every time you see a red car, you try to pray for safe travels for the driver (yourself included)
Do this often enough, and it will become a habit of yours.
Repeat for the vehicles of your family, then start praying for your family every time you think of them.
Repeat
These prayers don’t have to be crazy long. Just short, brief prayers.
Do it enough, and I bet you’ll notice your commute to and from work is a lot more pleasant.
And, of course, remember to pray graciously towards yourself and God during all of this, too.
My prayer for today
Our Father, thank you for silly things reminding us to communicate more with you. Jesus, help us find ways to pray more often so that we can find ourselves praying constantly and continuously. Spirit, help us show ourselves grace when prayer is hard for us and encourage us to keep going. Amen.
Remember
Use the basics here to form your own triggers to help you think to pray more often. Then, actually do it! (And when you forget or don’t want to, don’t beat yourself up about it either)