Pam Parish

Well, not literally, but I’m sure He dislikes what many Christians have turned it into - their only time during the day that they think about Him, or talk to Him. Don’t get me wrong, I think having a devoted time that’s set aside to spend one-on-one with God is awesome. Honestly, I wish I were more consistent in that area.

I see so many people who set this standard for themselves of “I have to spend XXX minutes/hours with God in the morning to be *really* holy” and then they fail to meet it and beat themselves up because their “relationship with God isn’t where it should be.” I’m sure God appreciates their effort and would love to have a daily morning date, but I just really feel like He’d much rather be on a lifetime date - inseparable.

While I do believe that setting aside a disciplined time in the morning for prayer can be a great thing and really go a long way in developing us as Christ-followers, I don’t think it should be the “ubber-goal” of a Christian’s life. The reason is when we set “morning prayer” as our only goal in an “ultimate” relationship with Christ we fail to pursue an ongoing conversation.

It’s like this, I love my husband with all my heart and, after 17 years of marriage, I’m just as in love with him today as I was 20 years ago when we met. I can’t imagine that our relationship would have ever gotten off the ground, much less lasted through 17 years of marriage and three daughters, if we only talked once a day for an hour. And, I think I would have fired our marriage counselor had his advice to us been to schedule a morning meeting of 30 minutes to an hour (or longer, if needed) to discuss life, our relationships, the kids, finances, things that are bothering us, relationships with others, work, traffic, ….. you get the point. It simply wouldn’t have worked.

If it won’t work in marriage, why do we think it will work in our most important relationship - our relationship with God? Simply put, it won’t. It can’t. If “morning prayer” is the ubber-goal in our relationship with God, we’re set up for failure from the start. Instead, we should be taught that, just like marriage, relationship and intimacy with God is a result of an ongoing conversation. Sure, there can - and should - be times of dedicated one-on-one time (dates, if you will) but more often than that should be the quick converstations, updates and concerns of our day.

…. oh wow, thank you for helping me get to work on time.

…. I need you to give me some wisdom on how to talk to my friend about her marriage. What should I say?

…. that conversation I just had with my daughter didn’t go so well, what did I do wrong? How can I make it better?

…. my long-distance family is going through something right now, I can’t be there, but you are.. can you protect them and provide?

…. my husband has a doctors appointment and I’m really concerned.. here’s what worries me….

For me, this is where real intimacy happens for both my marriage and in my relationship with God - through the mundane aspects of my life that I take the time - throughout my day - to stop and communicate.

Yes, if 30 minutes in the morning is the only time God hears from us, I think He probably does hate morning prayer…

… but He loves having an ongoing conversation.