The Silent Treatment

I don’t know about you, but I like Hallmark romance movies. They’re fun. In almost every Hallmark romance movie, there’s a time when, in the relationship, someone gets upset and they do something called “the silent treatment.” Now, I have watched enough of those to realize that “the silent treatment” is a terrible way to mend a relationship. So, I like to say, with regards to prayer, that there’s only one wrong way to say a prayer, and that is by using the silent treatment…which is not praying.

There are so many ways to pray. There are so many ways to talk to our Heavenly Father, to our God, to our creator, to our maker, and probably only one way to do it wrong. And that’s just by not doing it. I have had a lot of different experiences with prayer throughout my life and I want to share some of those stories with you. 

Counting a Prayer?

At one time in my life, I was having some particularly severe mental issues. My brain was just giving up on me, and I was just so exhausted. I was just so tired. Well, I knelt at the end of the day to say a prayer, and I got to the number 20 before I realized that I was counting and not praying as I had intended. I was upset and embarrassed. I told my husband and we kind of laughed it off a little bit. But it was hard. And you know what? I don’t think it was wrong. I think God heard that prayer. I got rest, and I got support. That prayer was answered. I got what I needed. My brain healed and I could think again. I could think clearly and that prayer was answered.  

Other Types of Prayer

There were other times in my life where I would get on my knees, and try to pray, but I just couldn’t think of the right words. I just didn’t have any words to describe what I was going through, because it was so hard. But I knelt anyway, and I think God heard me, because He knows my heart. And because He knows I was trying to reach out to Him, even though I had no words.

There are other times that I remember praying and it was more like yelling. And I yelled to God, “Why is this so hard? Why is my life so hard?” Just basically complaining and whining to Him. Some people might think that’s disrespectful. But as a parent, I would rather have my kids opening up and being vocal, rather than just not talking to me. It’s hard to help someone who won’t ask or won’t share what they’re going through. And I think it’s okay to yell sometimes, because He understands. He’s the perfect parent, and He wants to know.

There are other types of prayers, prayers of overwhelming gratitude for beautiful, wonderful blessings. I have said many, many of those. Life is so beautiful. We live in a gorgeous world, and we are surrounded by amazing people. And there’s a lot to be grateful for.

Another type of prayer is one of repentance. Repentance is changing our minds, realizing that we’ve done something or said something that, looking back, we regret. And we don’t want to do that anymore, so we say sorry and we ask for forgiveness, and those are good prayers.

Have You Thought of…

What are some different prayers that you have said in your life. What are some ways that you have prayed? Have you ever tried writing your prayers? I have dont that a few times. It works out really well. How about while brushing your teeth? Sometimes people need to be moving to have a clear mind. Have you ever tried praying in your car? Have you ever knelt in prayer? Have you ever prayed in nature? There are so many ways to pray, and only one way to do it wrong. That is by just not doing it at all. I encourage you to pray. God loves you. He misses you. He wants to talk. He wants to chat. So talk to Him today.

Does God Need Our Money?

Let’s begin by considering why we are asked to pay tithing. Does God need our money? It’s kind of a weird thing to think about. He doesn’t need our money, so why are we asked to give up what we worked hard for? What if the reason that we pay tithing isn’t because He needs our money, but what if it’s because we need Him? What if it’s to teach us that lesson? I don’t think that is the only lesson we can learn from tithing, but it is a lesson I learned years ago. That it wasn’t about Him needing what I had. It was teaching me that I needed what He had.

When we were a young married couple, with probably two kids at the time, and we were working hard, with my  husband still going to school, we didn’t have a lot of money. That’s usually how it goes, right? Well, one day I was writing out a check for our tithing payment. (That was back in the day when you had to write it all out. Oh, weren’t checks wonderful?) The check amount was over $200. At the time it was so much money, and I thought, “Wow! God’s asking a lot of us.” We were working really hard. We were trying to be good. We were doing what we could, but God was still asking a lot. That was a lot of money for us at that stage of our lives.

God’s Grace – An Unexpected Blessing

Well, I put it in the envelope, and we paid our tithing, like we had a habit of doing. Then, a couple of days later, we were in the car and we were going through the mail. As I think about it, I don’t know why we were going through our mail in the car. Probably because the kids were buckled up and occupied, and I could do it without worrying about them getting into things. Anyway, I sorted through the mail and found that there was a check in the mail. Seriously you guys…this check in the mail was almost the exact same amount as what I had written to pay our tithing. I was amazed, to say the least.

Now, I don’t understand God’s grace. I’m in awe of it, I’m inspired by it, and I’m so grateful for it. Earlier that week, as I was paying our tithing, I had had a moment of entitlement, and maybe a little greed. I wanted to keep that money. I felt like we worked hard for it and we deserved it. And I think that a lot of the blessings that we have, we feel like we work for them and we earn them. But, we can’t earn our way to heaven. We’re just not that good. We need grace too. 

And that’s the lesson I learned from this check. I’m sure it wasn’t just getting the check in the mail. It wasn’t about the money. It was about Heavenly Father saying, “Yes, you can work and you can get money.” And seriously this check was super random. I don’t even remember where this check came from. It was a very unexpected, large sum of money that we didn’t see coming. And I know it was from Him. I’m sure one of His earthly servants sent it to us. But it was a message from Him, to me, about His grace. We can work hard, earn money, and be blessed for our efforts, but other blessings come just through His grace. That was a really cool lesson for me to learn. 

If you haven’t paid your tithes recently, I encourage you to do it. And then I encourage you to look. Ask God to show you the blessings that are coming into your lives because of your obedience to that and other principles. I think you’ll be astounded at what you learn and what you find, specifically about the differences between works and grace. They’re both needed, they’re both necessary, and they’re both pretty cool.