Stories & Thyme

making space for creativity

Menu
  • About
    • Amy’s Favorite Things
  • Connect
  • Eat
  • Motherhood
  • Move
  • Pray
  • Read
    • Amy’s Favorite Books
    • Children’s Picture Book Lists
    • Favorite Children’s Christmas Books
    • Favorite Christian Children’s Bibles & Books
    • Favorite Early Readers & First Chapter Books
    • Favorite Resources for the 3Rs – Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic
    • Newbery Award Book Reviews
Menu

Imagining Prayer

Posted on April 18, 2013August 2, 2017 by Amy Rogers Hays

 

My very earliest memories of prayer are of lying on my bed, eyes closed with the little lights that dance across like my own personal night sky.  And I would talk to Jesus, imagining him taking me by the hand past galaxies to heaven, like he would—I was convinced—when I would die.  My sweet Grandma Irma, who had no particular professed faith, later told me that as a three year old I had many imaginary friends I would tell her about, imaginary children that I had with Jesus, my imaginary husband.  My childhood seemed saturated with Jesus.

 

My mother, a few weeks before my fourth birthday, sat me down to ask if I wanted to invite Jesus into my heart. She said that it was something that I had to choose, and she couldn’t force me.  And I thought about it at that tiny kitchen table in the 5th wheel trailer, and said after a moment simply: “no.” I was amazed that my mom really wanted me to do something but I didn’t have to, I could say no. So I did.

 

And my mother, to her immense credit, smiled and said “ok.” Then the next day she asked if I had thought about it more, and I told her I still did not want to. And again she just nodded and said nothing more about it. But that evening, as I was being tucked in with the nightly song and prayer, I asked if I could do the prayer. I remember my heart raced. I knew that I had said no for long enough. I plunged in and asked Jesus into my heart, using the words that my mother had told me about earlier: that I was sorry for my sins and I believed Jesus died for me, and I wanted him to come and live in my heart.  It was November 15, 1988 and it happened to be my Godmother Heidi’s birthday.  I remember how my parents called her with a happy shout to tell her the good news.

 


 

A few years later when my brother was then three, I knew that my parents hoped Jon and I could be baptized together. While we were coloring at the kitchen table in house my parents built in the California mountains, I asked if Jon if he had Jesus in his heart. He said “no.” And while my mom silently cooked dinner in the background listening to our exchange, I told Jon I thought he should have Jesus in his heart, so we could be baptized together.  I told him that he should pray and ask Jesus to come live in his heart, and Jon, much faster than I had, said “ok.”  I told him to repeat after me.  It is the only time I have had the privilege of leading someone in that sweet prayer.

 

Two decades later, my whole family is significantly more liturgical and sacramental. The rhetoric and timing of prayers and baptisms is different, earlier and more process oriented.  But as much as I have grown, as my faith is anchored by the traditions and history of the Church as well as stretched by complexities of experiences and relationships of nearly three decades, I think that my first prayers are much like my prayers now.

 

My prayers are still reluctant at times, something I know I should do but I put off. They are my words and yet also words I borrow. My prayers are rooted in relationship and a sense that Jesus is all around me.

 

My prayers are still reluctant at times, something I know I should do but I put off. I still struggle with guilt that I should be praying more. And sometimes that is because, well, I should be praying more, or at all.  I have a lot of perfectionism with prayer, if I don’t pray all the hours, then why bother praying any of them.  If I can’t get prayer “right” then why try and fail?  I know that is a rather silly notion that God has some sort of chart and wants to see all the boxes checked in a neat pattern, and a day missed ruins it. I don’t know exactly what do about this except to pray what we pray every Sunday, “Almighty God we know not how to prayer, teach us to pray.”

 

 

My prayers are my words and yet also words I borrow.  The liturgy is something that I came to love in high school. First as I worked at a Lutheran camp, then as my family started attending an Eastern Orthodox Church. It continued as I went to college and started to learn the Anglican service.  It wasn’t really until my senior year of college that I learned to use a prayer book, as I met with two other women a few times a week to do Morning Prayer, and watched as they navigated picking canticles and collects.  Just as borrowing my mom’s words for that first prayer helped me to articulate my own heart’s desire, so borrowing the words of the pious and poetic saints who have gone before me helps me to learn how to pray.

 

 

My prayers are rooted in relationship and a sense that Jesus is all around me. While I don’t have the same imaginary friends and games I did as a child, still Jesus is in my imaginings.  He is with me during my walks as I daydream. He is with me when I sit down to write.  I have a sense of his pleasure as I make connections between the ancient and the now.  And that means that I often start my writing time with prayer, and that my writing itself can be prayer.

 

What helps you make time for prayer? What gets in the way of prayer?

 

 

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Welcome!

PageLines- amyrogershays.JPG
I'm so glad you're here! I'm Amy - Anglican, mother of two, lover of trees, coffee, & fairy tales. Here's where I write about making space for creativity and filling our days with long walks, good food, morning prayers, and the reading and writing of good books. Drop me a line at AmyRogersHays (at) gmail.com.

follow us in feedly

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Instagram

instagram walk in snow

Follow Me on Instagram!

Recent Posts

  • Maundy Thursday: A Liturgy for Children and Families
  • Family Easter Basket Ideas: Books, Games, and Really Good Chocolate
  • Newbery Review #104 (The First State of Being, Kelly, 2025)
  • 40 Books for My 40th Birthday: A 2024 Reading List
  • Family Christmas Letter 2024

Twitter

spring robin outline on budding branches Follow me on Twitter!

Categories

  • Anxiety
  • baby
  • Board Games
  • Book Lists
  • Children's Spiritual Formation
  • Connect
  • Creativity
  • Eat
  • Family Stories
  • Fun with Kids
  • Liturgical year
  • Love & Marriage
  • Make
  • Motherhood
  • Move
  • Newbery Book Reviews
  • Order
  • paleo
  • Pray
  • pregnancy
  • Read
  • Reflections
  • Rest
  • Self-Care
  • simplify
  • Toddler
  • Travel
  • Uncategorized
  • walks in the woods
  • Wisconsin Beauty
  • Write

Favorite Posts

natural haircare

Make Natural Hair Care: Baking Soda, Apple Cider Vinegar & Vodka-Gelatin Hair Gel

  homemade deodorant

Make Homemade Deodorant For Sensitive Skin: Bentonite Clay and Baking Soda

  college advice

Advice to Future College Students: 10 Things I Wish I Had Done More

  belonging to a church

Belonging to A Church

  dyslexia

Reflections on Dyslexia: May B. A Novel by Caroline Starr Rose

  leaving grad school

A Defining Retreat: Deciding to Leave Grad School

  love story

The Beginning of a Love Story In Honor of Anniversary Weekend

  breakfast

Scramble Up A Simple Paleo Breakfast

  cake

Bake Up A Flourless Chocolate Cake

  comfortable and presentable

Organize Bookshelves by Color

  trees

My Life In Trees

  elimination diet

An Elimination Diet Figure Out What Foods Are Making You Sick

  goodbye letter

A Goodbye Letter to Our Church: Leaving Those You Love

  paleo blended chai recipe

Paleo Chai: A Blended Coconut Oil & Butter Recipe

  Prayer book

16 Online Resources: Liturgical Prayer Apps & Websites

 

Archives

Welcome!


I’m so glad you’re here! I’m Amy – Anglican, mother of two, lover of trees, coffee, & fairy tales. Here’s where I write about making space for creativity and filling our days with long walks, good food, morning prayers, and the reading and writing of good books. Drop me a line at AmyRogersHays (at) gmail.com.

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 744 other subscribers

Instagram

instagram walk in snow

Follow Me on Instagram!

Search

Recent Posts

Maundy Thursday: A Liturgy for Children and Families

Maundy Thursday: A Liturgy for Children and Families

Family Easter Basket Ideas: Books, Games, and Really Good Chocolate

Family Easter Basket Ideas: Books, Games, and Really Good Chocolate

Newbery Review #104 (The First State of Being, Kelly, 2025)

Newbery Review #104 (The First State of Being, Kelly, 2025)

40 Books for My 40th Birthday: A 2024 Reading List

40 Books for My 40th Birthday: A 2024 Reading List

Family Christmas Letter 2024

Family Christmas Letter 2024

Recipe for a Birthday Hike

Recipe for a Birthday Hike

An Invitation to October Rest: A Devotional

An Invitation to October Rest: A Devotional

Fun for Two: 5 Date Night Board & Card Games

Fun for Two: 5 Date Night Board & Card Games

Our Board-Game Loving, Third Grade Son’s Top 5 List of Favorite Board Games

Our Board-Game Loving, Third Grade Son’s Top 5 List of Favorite Board Games

Our First Grader’s Top Board Games: 5 No-Reading-Required, Travel Friendly, Family Card Games

Our First Grader’s Top Board Games: 5 No-Reading-Required, Travel Friendly, Family Card Games

5 Games to Start a Board Game Collection

5 Games to Start a Board Game Collection

5 Tips for Family Board Gaming

5 Tips for Family Board Gaming

40 of the Best Picture Books for 5 Year Olds

40 of the Best Picture Books for 5 Year Olds

Newbery Review #103 (The Eyes and the Impossible, Egger, 2024)

Newbery Review #103 (The Eyes and the Impossible, Egger, 2024)

Ash Wednesday: A Liturgy for Children and Families

Ash Wednesday: A Liturgy for Children and Families

Ways to Feel a Little Better or a Little More Peaceful

Ways to Feel a Little Better or a Little More Peaceful

How to Find Great Children’s Books: 20 Guide Books, Books Lists, and Web Resources

How to Find Great Children’s Books: 20 Guide Books, Books Lists, and Web Resources

39 Books for my 39th Birthday: A 2023 Reading List

39 Books for my 39th Birthday: A 2023 Reading List

Family Christmas Letter 2023

Family Christmas Letter 2023

A Simple Home Christmas Pageant Script

A Simple Home Christmas Pageant Script

Books & Boots for Saint Nicholas Day: A List of our Family’s Favorite Christmas Picture and Read Aloud Books

Books & Boots for Saint Nicholas Day: A List of our Family’s Favorite Christmas Picture and Read Aloud Books

40 Great Picture Books for 4 Year Olds

40 Great Picture Books for 4 Year Olds

Newbery Review #102 (Freewater, Luqman-Dawson, 2023)

Newbery Review #102 (Freewater, Luqman-Dawson, 2023)

The Best Children’s Bibles: 30+ suggestions from Board Book Bibles to Illustrated Study Bibles

The Best Children’s Bibles: 30+ suggestions from Board Book Bibles to Illustrated Study Bibles

An Epiphany Liturgy for Children and Families

An Epiphany Liturgy for Children and Families

Categories

  • Anxiety
  • baby
  • Board Games
  • Book Lists
  • Children's Spiritual Formation
  • Connect
  • Creativity
  • Eat
  • Family Stories
  • Fun with Kids
  • Liturgical year
  • Love & Marriage
  • Make
  • Motherhood
  • Move
  • Newbery Book Reviews
  • Order
  • paleo
  • Pray
  • pregnancy
  • Read
  • Reflections
  • Rest
  • Self-Care
  • simplify
  • Toddler
  • Travel
  • Uncategorized
  • walks in the woods
  • Wisconsin Beauty
  • Write

Favorite Posts

natural haircare

Make
Natural Hair Care: Baking Soda, Apple Cider Vinegar & Vodka-Gelatin Hair Gel

 

homemade deodorant

Make
Homemade Deodorant For Sensitive Skin: Bentonite Clay and Baking Soda

 

college advice

Advice to Future College Students: 10 Things I Wish I Had Done More

 

belonging to a church

Belonging to A Church

 

dyslexia

Reflections on Dyslexia:
May B. A Novel by Caroline Starr Rose

 

leaving grad school

A Defining Retreat: Deciding to Leave Grad School

 

love story

The Beginning of a Love Story In Honor of Anniversary Weekend

 

breakfast

Scramble Up A Simple Paleo Breakfast

 

cake

Bake Up A Flourless Chocolate Cake

 

comfortable and presentable

Organize Bookshelves by Color

 

trees

My Life In Trees

 

elimination diet

An Elimination Diet Figure Out What Foods Are Making You Sick

 

goodbye letter

A Goodbye Letter to Our Church: Leaving Those You Love

 

paleo blended chai recipe

Paleo Chai: A Blended Coconut Oil & Butter Recipe

 

Prayer book

16 Online Resources: Liturgical Prayer Apps & Websites

 

© 2025 Stories & Thyme | Powered by Minimalist Blog WordPress Theme