Prayer has been on my mind a lot lately. For some reason when life gets frustrating, when I need God the most, is when I drift further away and my prayer life (aka my relationship) with God suffers. Instead of focusing on my problems, I like to ignore them. It is hard to pray for help and guidance when I'm trying not to focus on the tough situations I am in!

I am reading this book by Lawrence J. Cohen called "Playful Parenting." As I was reading about the importance of play, I came across a great quote about how we have to choose to play with our kids: "We have lost much of our ability to play—through lack of practice and through adult preoccupations and worries—and this loss gets in our way of being with children. We have to choose to play, even if we don't feel like it."

After I read that, I thought that if I just change the word “play” to “pray” and “children” with “God”, it becomes a really great quote about how we have to choose to have a meaningful relationship with God.

"We have lost much of our ability to pray—through lack of practice and through adult preoccupations and worries—and this loss gets in our way of being with God. We have to choose to pray, even if we don't feel like it."

I love that last sentence. "We have to choose to pray."

We have to choose to have a relationship with our children. We have to choose to grow our relationship with our Heavenly Father.

Writing this made me think of the example Daniel set for us. In Daniel 6:10, it says that Daniel had the custom of praying three times a day. He was someone that chose to pray and chose to have a relationship with God.

Just like I daily choose to play with my kids, I will choose to daily pray to God.