I remember it clearly.  We would be going somewhere, anywhere.  Driving around in our 76 Cutlass and later an Oldsmobile 88, my brother Ken and I in the back seat…sometimes just me.  My mom would start whispering, talking to herself it seemed.  I was a young kid and always thought it was funny…and different.  “Mom, who are you talking to?”  Her reply: “Oh…just talking to myself”.  I know now what she was doing.  Today, I found myself doing the same thing and instantly having a flashback to those times.

While I’m sure at times she could have been saying under her breath, “Just wait till I get these boys home…” or something like that, I’m fairly certain she was praying.  See, my mom loves Jesus today and she did back then as well.  She was murmuring prayers, whispering them as she was driving.  I’m at the point where I’m understanding that more.  It’s those prayers when things on the inside of your mind are desperate, feeling helpless.  Maybe it’s for your child that is struggling at school, a financial crunch, a dealine that you fear you’re not going to make, a relationship that is struggling, or a job where you feel like you’re losing your mind.  It’s the kind of prayer where you’re basically saying, “God, if you don’t come through, I’m dead meat.”

One of the things I said in an earlier post was that I wanted to increase the amount of prayers I mumble through the day…trying to be not only consistent, but more deliberately constant.  I never put that together with my mom’s own “prayer mumbling” until today.  I’m hoping to join a long line of mumblers and pass it down, too.

Pray without ceasing. – 1 Thessalonians 5:17