I am Casey K. Cross

If you’ve been following along with the lectionary, you might be aware that a major theme of our recent gospel lessons has been prayer. It’s been a great opportunity to talk with our kids in the children’s message about the ways we pray and what happens when we pray. Far too often, we think of prayer as what we say to God. Far too often, prayer is described or used as a kind of wish list where we name all the ways we need God to do something for us. Neither of those two things are inherently wrong or bad, but they do limit what the gift of prayer might actually be.