Understanding How to Pray Ceaselessly as a Mom

Understanding how to pray ceaselessly was a lesson God had waiting for me as a mom. I had always known that prayer was important, but it was something we did at church, before meals, during difficult times.

I didn’t really know how to pray ceaselessly, yet.

One night, when my daughter was just three years old, her bedtime had slid backwards a few minutes because her glow stick bubble bath ran a little long. She had played until the water was cold, her fingers tiny raisins. By the time I was finishing her bedtime story, sleepiness had turned her into a tiny ball of hysterical giggles.

Letting her laughter rise up like champagne bubbles into my heart, I treasured every moment. I didn’t want this sweet time together to end.

After a few minutes, I tried to calm her down so we could say prayers. Yet, even as I was explaining to her why she should stop giggling and close her eyes, I felt God tell me not to stop her laughter. Prayer wasn’t something He wanted her to learn was serious and stodgy all the time.

And that, unwittingly, I was teaching her to only pray at certain times in certain mindsets.

I pictured Jesus asking the disciples to let the little children come to him, as they were, not as the disciples thought they should be.

Almost audibly, I felt God sadly telling me that her precious, infectious, baby laughter was music to His heart, too. I felt so convicted.

And woefully unprepared. How do I teach my daughter to pray? Certainly, quiet-folded-fingers prayers have a place, but what does God call us to do?

1 Thessalonians 5:17 ESV Pray without ceasing,

Pray constantly. In every moment. In every attitude. That certainly wasn’t how I had been treating prayer.

I don’t want God to sit on a shelf like a dusty Bible no one reads, or be put away and only brought out during important times. I want following Christ to be part of everything we do.

So, I tried to make prayer something we do together several times a day.

But modeling a running dialogue with God seemed a little daunting. I wasn’t sure how to do that until God gave me an opportunity to practice.

If I wanted her to understand how to pray ceaselessly, I had to model it.

I had to pray out loud whenever the opportunity presented itself, to be in an attitude of prayer while I’m having Bible study, or even in the little challenging moments of marriage & motherhood.

One time, I felt called to pray out loud in a very specific instance. My husband had left a load of his laundry in the dryer for several days. The load was mostly army uniforms, which includes the most horrible socks to match and fold.

That load of laundry was aggravating me. I could feel myself becoming bitter over it. But, as I was learning to serve my husband more graciously, I felt God nudge me to fold it for him instead of nag him about it. But when I dragged myself to do it, I wasn’t very joyful in my service. Quietly convicted about my attitude in front of my daughter, I prayed for a joyful heart, and we prayed out loud over that laundry as we folded it.

“Dear God, Thank you for this load of laundry that means Daddy is home and not deployed in Iraq again. Thank you that his service allows me to stay home to care for him and our family. Thank you for giving me a family to do laundry for. And thank you for showing me how to love my family through service.”

That moment felt right for a lot of reasons. I got to model a joyful attitude about being a helpmate in front of my daughter, but also . . .

I got to model that prayer can be eyes open, in the moment, conversational.

In fact, a couple of times that year, I caught my daughter talking aloud to God or Jesus.

Once, she was sitting at the kitchen island holding up a tiny scrape having a conversation alone. I asked her what she was doing. She replied, “I’m telling Jesus about my boo boo.”

And I listened to her finish telling Jesus how she got the scrape, and how her wonderful body would heal that scrape. “Thank you for my body and please help me feel better, Jesus.” Just as she would talk to me, she chatted animatedly and informally.

She spoke to Jesus like a friend.

Hmm, maybe I was the one who really needed to understand how to pray.

Learning to pray ceaselessly isn’t a burden that God places on us.

It’s not one more thing we have to do to please God. It’s something we GET to do.

Jesus’ death on the cross tore down the barrier between us and God. We get to come to Him with all our wants, needs, even silly frustrations. We get to talk with him like friends.

When we learn to seek God in everything we do, our hearts turn toward God. We want to be close with Him. It is then we understand the treasure God gave us in being able to come to Him.

Praying ceaselessly is a way to invite God into every moment of our lives. And I finally understood this sweet blessing through parenting my daughter.

So how do I pray ceaselessly as a mom?

• Pray as part of waking up. I have a Pray Awake printable that helps me.
• Keep my running internal dialogue as a conversation with God.
• Pray out loud, whether for help or praise, don’t make prayer a special occasion.
• When I’m struggling, I pray while taking a deep breath. I can feel God intercede in my heart and give me a better attitude or a gentle response.
• Don’t worry about the words. God knows my every thought. I don’t have to make it pretty before bringing my concerns before Him.
• Keep a prayer journal or notebook where I can read through prayer requests easily and regularly.

God wants to live in constant communion with us. He treasures us.

Learning how to pray ceaselessly was really just understanding how much God loves me and desires relationship with me.

Just like I treasured those sweet joyful moments with my daughter and didn’t want them to end, God wants to inhabit our constant praise and abide with us in our needs. When we walk in that fullness of relationship with Him, we realize how much more God has for us than we can even understand.