Thoughts about prayer [View all]

I pray every night. I've prayed almost every night since I was in 3rd grade, whenever I became aware of the nuclear threat in our world. As I age, and since I'm alone a lot, I, like many others, sometimes wonder if God hears my prayers. In the last few years, I've thought that perhaps prayers are not so much directed to God's ear, as to making each of us mindful of the people in our universe, or the needs in our community, or the ideals in the world, and by sending prayers, we get a bit of resolve to do better the next day.

I know what I pray for, and again, as I grow older, I wonder what other people pray for. And this week, I thought, well, if prayer makes us mindful, it can also reinforce our ideas of what we want the world to be. If I pray for the refugees to get comfort, and that reinforces my resolve to contribute to a charity that helps refugees, does another person somewhere pray to keep their country safe, and then donate to border patrol? I'll keep praying, hoping that my plea for someone's health or safety will reach God's ear, but might also think about the earthly effect of my words.