Re-focus

So, I've been out on-site a few days this week at a kindergarten in the Catholic school system. The Catholic school board is not unfamiliar to me; I spent several months in Catholic schools as a TA a few years ago.

In kindergarten, the prayers kids are taught are quite simple. Usually four or five lines at most, and it's usually a rhyming prayer. Perfect for five-year-olds to learn and memorize. And nice for adults because they are generally the same (or similar) from class to class; no awkward re-learning of prayers every time teachers walk into a new group of kids.

I've never thought of kindergarten prayers as much more than simple and child-friendly... until this week. Perhaps it's the craziness that has been my life over the last few weeks, resulting in the need to re-focus, but the kindergarten class' opening prayer really struck me this week. It goes:

Good morning, dear Jesus
This day is for You
In all that I say,
In all that I do.

That's it. The entirety of Christian living in four lines. As adults, we get so elaborate with our prayers sometimes. And even though I've grown up knowing that I can pray to God conversationally (because, after all, I am talking to my Best Friend), even those conversations are often long-winded, containing so much superfluous language.

This is not to say that God doesn't want us to have the long-winded, detailed conversations with Him. He has the time for those, believe me! And He wants to know what's on our hearts--if that takes up three journal pages, then so be it! He wants to work through those prayers, too!

What I think is important, though, is to not forget what we're here for, and to stop making it more complex than it really is. As Christians, we are to live out His will for our lives. When we wake up each morning, it is not to review and try to accomplish what we were not able to cross off our to-do list yesterday. It is not to tackle every problem before the sun goes down again. It is not to figure out what it will take today to better our quality of life for tomorrow. It is not to rush around to a hundred different commitments to convince ourselves of active living. If God has allowed us to wake up this morning, it is to spend the day serving Him where He has placed us. We were put on this earth for His glory. Period.

Good morning, dear Jesus,
This day is for You
In all that I say,
In all that I do.