Good Morning God

Included in my morning routine is a quick text to my son in college.  Now, how many of these he actually sees is not the point.  Since Jim views the phone as useful only for necessary communication, his phone is usually turned off.  Still, I want to greet him in the morning.   When I got my new phone, Savannah showed me the wonders of the voice to text.  Since I find the use of the little buttons to text very frustrating, I usually avail myself of the dictation.  This morning, after a sleepy prayer time, I dictated my morning message to my son.  I intended for it to say: Good morning guy, I hope you have a great day, love you.  However, this is not quite how it came out.  The dictation showed:  good morning god I hope you have a great day love you. 

While I dutifully corrected the god to guy, another thought came to me.   The beautiful idea that God desires a friendship with us has been a constant theme of late in my readings and also appeared in this past Sunday’s homily.  To borrow also from a recent homily, I may know in my head that God wants a friendship with me, but do I know it in my heart?  I often see this as a matter of awareness.   God is always there waiting for me, but given my state of mind, do I even think of him?

I have been struggling to find a way to build that awareness.  Even today in my morning prayer, as I tried to prayer with the Scripture, I found myself falling asleep.   I recently finished Patricia Livingston’s wonderful book, “Let in the Light”.  Among the many beautiful, simple concepts in that book was the suggestion to pray in the way that is comfortable to me.  Ms. Livingston also reminded me that “productivity” in prayer is not at all up to me.  God takes the initiative and it really is all up to Him. This little text message then raised a question.   It was not lost upon me this morning that I nearly fell asleep during my formal prayer time, but God seemed to be speaking to me as I reached out to someone that I love dearly. 

Ms. Livingston’s book and the other readings that have crossed my path of late have really encouraged a constant communication with God.   I was urged to talk to him as a friend about all things throughout the entire day.  Turn my distractions, worries and anxiety into prayer.  Give these thoughts to God.  Let Him become a constant presence in my life.  So, when I saw the dictation error, I thought that it may be one of those tiny ways that He communicates with me all day.  I saw it as an invitation to further that friendship in a simple and comfortable manner.   What better way to begin a constant daily communication with God? What better way to develop a friendship with Him than to greet Him first thing in the morning with a statement of love?  Perhaps I have been trying to compartmentalize my pray when I should just be talking to Him all day long.  So, maybe the text was not an error at all.  Good morning God I hope you have a great day love you.