and none of you asks Me

I keep forgetting that Beliefnet is infiltrated by the devil. And I keep reading articles that only serve to irritate me by their grand stupidity. But they're no different from the rest of MSM, so I suppose it should be expected. Their latest piece is another piece lacking an understanding of God that still attempts to pass itself off as exactly the opposite.

It's not that I want to defend prayer for parking. The article's implication that believers need to focus on the bigger changes in their lives rather than on the little things is certainly a good encouragement. But to make the blanket assertion that the little things shouldn't be brought before God is inane.

Prayer is no either or. It is not one type of thing. To think the Lord doesn't want to be bothered by the small things misunderstands God at a fundamental level. He has the capacity to handle all things -- it's not as if He has too much to do so we shouldn't add stuff to His pile. That's ludicrous.

Secondly, it's the same as telling a parent that their kids shouldn't come up to them if they have a little paper cut that needs a kiss, or a button that needs to be sewn back to a bear's eye. Instead, the children should only come to the parent if they've broken a leg or crashed the car through the garage.

The entire issue is that this piece is written from a perspective that considers prayers and answered prayers as somehow related to God's feelings about us. Prayer and their answers are not immediately connected. Prayer is your conversation with the One leading you. And that conversation doesn't need to be universal matters of weight. The best practice to increase your time with God is to speak to Him about anything and everything, not simply to save up your time until something big comes along. Sometimes that Father of yours wants you to tell Him that silly story about what you said and then what she said and then what you said and how you both laughed because that seemingly small thought shared makes Him smile.

That's what love is after all.