I am a woman of many words! I can talk endlessly for hours and strike up conversations with young and old, strangers and unknown !!! My friends know how frustrating it can be to have a telephonic conversation with me cause I will not shut up!
But.. I have a weird anxiety to start a conversation with my extended family and neighbors. I just feel shy and awkward and the conversation revolves around how work is going on and on my general well being before I make a run for the nearest exit. I avoid the confrontation and small talk and prefer to avoid the encounter.
While some of my neighbors and family assume I am proud and vain, I actually avoid conversation or even acknowledge them more out of anxiety of the questions they ask mostly personal about my future plans, the dreaded marriage question or worse!! medical advice which seems unending and never of my specialty, which I am not comfortable talking about but alas I cannot fathom telling them out loud so I rather avoid them.
I often wonder how I can easily connect with a stranger on a flight and a patient who does not speak my mother tongue but not with people who know me as a child or watched me grow over these years. I conclude, it is because I have the fear of being unable to connect to any one of them at some level of my thinking and since I have barely anything in common with most I find it hard to even continue a conversation and it usually ends up being just weird small talk !For now, it is the constant unsolicited advice/ opinion I get on covid 19 and the vaccine!!
Unlike with God, He knows what we want, what we need and what we desire in our hearts… While He knows ( like my family) He still expects you to tell him every tiny need and concern and dump all your stresses at His feet…
In praying, do not babble like the pagans,
who think that they will be heard because of their many words.
Do not be like them.
Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
So lets keep the small talk aside and just come to the point and kneel before Him and pray. No fancy words, no extra fanfare, no over the top praise and worship but just talk to Him what is in your heart and feel so much lighter and calmer!! and when anyone of you have nothing much to complain about or ask for ( rare)… He even gave us a readymade prayer… Our father.. THE PRAYER!!
So enough with the babbling and set a date and time to have a heartfelt chat with the Lord and keep it precise, simple and on point!
PRAYER
Hi Lord, thank you for the wonderful day and week so far. I ask you to bless everyone battling with the covid 19 virus with strength, resilience, commitment and faith!! I thank you for my health and that of my loved ones and put forth all my stresses and worries ( my upcoming exams in July 2021) – insert your issues– at your feet. Help me Lord to be a beacon of your teaching to everyone around me and may you bless all those who are reading this page now!
AMEN!
