Revamping your prayer life.

The first time I remember praying was for my dad’s sickness to be healed. I don’t recall how old I was, but I must have been around five or six. My dad was tucking me into bed and leaned down and said, “don’t forget to say your prayers and make sure to pray for me too.” Growing up in a pretty non-religious household this was the closest we got to Christian spirituality, but it made an impact on me.

It became a ritual to pray nightly. Usually it was in my head and I would think of a few things that I wanted and then drift off to sleep. I think that’s how a lot of us continue to pray. Up until recently, this was how I was still praying. I’d pray in church a little more seriously or during bible study, but my usual prayers were mimicking the way I prayed as a child and they were the least bit consistent.

This year I decided that I wanted to revamp my prayer life and open myself up to the power of prayer. For the past week, I have prayed the rosary every night before bed and within only a week i’ve grown to love the consistency and the rythm of prayer. It feels like coming home-like you are letting yourself relax into the arms of the Father. There’s moments when I don’t want to do it and I want to scroll mindlessly on my phone instead, but I push myself through that and I kneel by my bed with my rosary in hand and I pray anyway. And as soon as it begins the wave of comfort comes back.

I’ve been using a rosary because I had gotten two beautiful rosaries as a gift for Christmas and I wanted to see what the hype was all about. For one, I like the reminder to pray in the form of the rosary. I keep one of them on the table right next to my bed so I never forget to return to it at the end of the day. I also like the way it helps me to keep track of my prayers and to remain consistent, something I’ve always struggled with.

Since I am very new to the rosary and to praying consistently, I downloaded an app called Hallow and have been following along with it. It’s helped me a lot as I learn different prayers and learn to center myself as I am praying. The app also gives me the opportunity to journal a couple of sentences once I am done praying, so I can look back at what I received from the prayer each day. Lent is coming up in a little over a week and my goal is to pray every morning and every night throughout lent. Jesus was a great example not only of how to pray but of how much to pray. Starting my day and ending my day with prayer I hope will revamp my prayer life and open myself up to the depths of knowledge that lies within solice with the Father.

I encourage you to revamp your prayer life too. Consistency is always the hardest thing. Download an app to remind you. Journal your prayers to hold you accountable. Whatever it takes, push yourself to spend some alone time with God and see what He wants to say to you.