Enjoying the Simple Pleasures of Praying

One of my favorite activities is on Saturday morning right after I wake up and pray is to start cleaning my room as good as needed which usually takes about an hour to an hour and a half (yea, I know some people are slow!) Before I clean my room I open the curtains in the apartment and all doors so the apartment is full of the morning light. And turn on a sermon by Dr. Stanley and start cleaning!

My room is always organized so I don’t have to put things in place or anything like that, but the dust I have no control over so I wipe the dust off everything. Then I wipe the floor clean and lastly change the bed sheet and the billow cases, and the comforter if needed. Of course I also have to make the mirror shine again! These are by far my most enjoyable moments throughout the week! No matter what else I do there is nothing as enjoyable as cleaning, listening to God’s Word, and doing it early in the morning on a day off!

On top of enjoying all of that there is also the reward of going in the evening to bed when everything is quite, locking the door and picking my Bible and start reading it or just lay there with my table lamp on and talk to God. The wonderful fresh smell of clean bed sheet and billow cases, the cozy feeling of being under clean warm comforter and on top of cold bed sheet, and the atmosphere of everything is shiny around me, and knowing that I have no responsibilities for a day or so is just too good so I try to enjoy every minute of it. And when I am relaxed I can talk to my Heavenly Father without having other things come into my mind and distract me from focusing on Him.

That’s why I took this photo because when I look at the my table lamp and see the wonderful light it reflects off the wall I realize that to home is where you can relax, pray, cry, and feel God’s awesome presence as your mind becomes silent.

Praying by Fadi

My dream is that when I get married, if it is God’s will, that I would live on a farm with my wife in a little farm house of two stories. I can’t imagine how it feels to have my wife and my kids in my arms, lying on mattresses in front of the fire place under some warm comforters, talking to each other and listening to each other, joke, tell riddles, read the Bible, pray…

Some of my favorite memories are from times when electricity went off. Those were the times where I felt so close to God and He got my attention more than any other time. Those were the times where He spoke to my heart without saying a word; where I felt His presence in such a way that I cannot put it into words.

I remember a couple of times when my computer went down and I felt that God was telling me to leave it alone for a few days before I fix it. And sometimes I didn’t even want to fix it because it took away from God’s time in my daily life. I remember leaving my PC not working for a week so I could be spending more time with God. Now when I pray I make sure I don’t know what time it is and that my alarm clock is turned away and everything is turned off so not only I don’t have a distraction but also prayer does not become a burden and a race against time.