Biking around my NASA affiliated Houston neighborhood is one of my simple joys.  When neighbors ask if we’re “the family that bikes to Church,” I smile with delight and gratitude.  Yes. Yes, we are.

Honestly, this isn’t something that I would instinctively insert into my daily prayer.  Yet, studying the Psalms has prompted me to ask at any given moment: What is my Psalm?  This simple question helps integrate prayerful conversation with God into the ordinary moments of daily life.

To pray in the style of the Psalms – or to pray using the words of the Psalms themselves – it’s helpful to know a little background.

The Book of Psalms is a collection of prayers and songs from throughout Israel’s history.  They are prayerful responses to real, specific life experiences.  And as varied as our life experiences may be on any given day, so are the Psalms!  This variety and connection to life is why the Psalms were so often sung and prayed in worship by the ancient Israelites, sung and prayed by Jesus and the apostles, and continue to be sung and prayed by us today.

Acknowledging simple joys with a Psalm of Praise is a beautiful way to recognize God’s presence in all things.

How?

Begin by inviting praise, such as: “Let us praise God!” Then articulate the specific reasons for praising God in that moment. And conclude by recapping the praise.

Look at how Psalm 117 – which is the shortest Psalm, with only two verses – provides a great example of this basic structure:

As I bike through my neighborhood, if I were to use the words from Scripture, I might recite the final verse of Psalm 150

But the beautiful gift of the Psalms is how they also teach us how to pray our own Psalm of Praise.

Praise God

For my adorable green bike

For its form and its function

and its matching green basket

For the ability to ride

For my wonderful neighborhood

For biking to the homes of friends,

to fun at the pool,

to Church,

to Starbucks,

to CVS.

For the opportunities I have

to share this with my family

whom I love

For all that I have; for all that I am,

Praise God

Ask yourself: What is my Psalm?  And then say it, write it, sing it, pray it.

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For the longest time, our family dinner conversation was…painfully boring, and not for a lack of trying.  We ate dinner together as a family regularly, but we have young kids who were neither contributing to the conversation nor responding to unending questions: “How was your day?”  “What did you work on?”  “Who did you sit with at lunch?”  “What did you do in P.E.?”  To be honest, my husband wasn’t a lot better: “Fine… Had a never-ending meeting for [acronym-laced-NASA-project].”

We wanted our family dinner time to be an experience of community.  Sometimes fun and joyful.  Sometimes serious.  Often something in-between.  Really, we just wanted more quality in our time together.  And it just wasn’t happening.

• Can you relate?  When it comes to cultivating quality conversations with your loved ones, what are your successes?  What are your struggles?

Now this isn’t the only prayer we do with the boys, but quite honestly, it has been one of the most positive, powerful experiences of prayer in our home.  Through the Rose, we get to know the highs and lows of the boys’ days.  There are days that we’ve erupted into fits of giggles.  There are days that we have shed tears of sorrow and consoled one another.  There are days that we’ve needed to solve frustrating family problems.  And we are able to do so in conversation with God.

Prayer is conversation with God.  Through the Rose, our conversation about our day is turned towards God as we share it with each other.

On the surface, The Rose is a structure for sharing that we have easily implemented with friends and family of a variety of religious backgrounds.  But the beauty of prayer structured like St. Ignatius Loyola’s Examen is that we intentionally reflect upon our day, seeking God’s presence.

My boys are 6 1/2 and 8.  Most of the prayer they practice is recited rhythmic blessings and petitions.  And that’s ok – it’s age appropriate.  But practicing The Rose has opened up opportunities for conversations about prayer and God that I never imagined.

One day when Alex was having a particularly frustrating day–very Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day–he tearfully lamented that he simply didn’t have a rose.  While the simplistic imagery of The Rose lends itself to being interpreted as your “favorite” part of the day, that’s not exactly what the prayer is asking.  I empathized with him that he was having a difficult day, but asked if he could think of some things he could Thank God for – and he did.   Likewise, the thorn isn’t about complaining as much as it is prayerfully asking for God’s help.

Prayer is conversation with God, and when we are open to it, the very experience of it changes us.  The Rose has been a tremendous, transforming gift to our family experience of prayer.  May it be a blessing to yours as well!

“Close-up of red rose flower © Depositphotos.com/hadrian”

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