Dear Jesus,

"Thank you for my brothers and sisters and my mommy and daddy. Please help my friend feel better tonight, and please comfort my uncle since his mommy went to be with you. Thank you for our house, and please help us find a new one with woods. Amen"

Simple. From the heart, with thanksgiving and honesty.

Does it really need to be complicated? Does prayer really need to be analyzed, broken down into talking points at a conference? With captions like, "Why prayers aren't answered?"
Can't we just talk...to Jesus...our Heavenly Father...Abba...our Creator God? He knows our hearts anyways, it doesn't matter how we re-arrange our words, or attempt to manipulate our thoughts to be more convicted, or more sure of ourselves in what we are asking.

After all, Jesus is the one who said, "with prayer and supplication, let your requests be made known to God"
He didn't say, "only after intensive research into the Scriptures, and arrangement of your prayer in the formula guaranteed to get results, will I consider listening to you"

I've heard it said that we need to stop praying "baby prayers", prayers like the ones my children pray each night before bed. We need to dig deeper into God and pray "grown up prayers" about the spiritual well-being of our neighborhoods, and the conscience of those guiding our nation.

yes. yes we do.

But sometimes, " baby prayers"  are the most honest, the most from the heart. The very thing that God put us immediately in care over, our children and our household, the very thing God created us as mothers to be, wouldn't it make sense that those are the things that prick our hearts and  move us to the simple, heartfelt cries and conversations with Jesus like, "Help me know what to do next!" or "please help my daughter learn to share".
Tiny supplications sent up to a mighty God who cares about so much more than that, and because of it, cares about details...because the details are the things that layer upon layer to make the big beautiful picture that He's painting!

Those of us who are gifted with the vision of the bigger picture are the ones who need to continue to strive and pray that way...
But there are also those of us who are down in the trenches, polishing and perfecting our execution of the tedium, the mundane stuff of life...the things that make the bigger picture come alive! The beautiful details that will make our sons and daughters and husbands and households a true work of art.

So...

Dear Jesus, thank you for always listening to me no matter what I say, and where I am. Thank you for Your promise to always be near. Please grant me wisdom to carry out my duties for today in a fair and loving manner, to glorify You. And please help me to find a solution to Ava's whining...
Amen!