On the habit of prayer

Butterfly Kisses posted this entry about the power of prayer. It made me think and I want to post some thoughts.

Remember those little pictures with beautiful, curly children crossing their hands, kneeling in front of their bed that we were given at Sunday School?
I've always loved them, the colors and the retro feel, but I found them too sugar-covered for my tastes to reproduce in my own life. I said my Sunday prayer every morning, and prayed in the evening before bed time, but the image of the little brothers and sisters praying did not add up to anything.
It took me about two decades and my kids later, to realise the value of the praying children. Not only Christian preachers but also believers of all faiths and scientists of all ways will tell you of the importance of prayer.
You've only got to try it for a week. Just as you are to go about your daily tasks, stop in front an icon, or a statue, or just your plain open window. For me it works better when I am in Nature. Then open your arms or hold them together and say aloud or recite what you have in your mind. Your thoughts and fears, anything that sits heavy on your chest, and ASK for help.
Asking makes as humble. Perhaps that is why many of us avoid it. But you must ask for help, for encouragement, for guidance, for protection.
As I see my children off to school, I know there is someone there with them, stronger, cleverer, wiser than me, to guide them and protect them.
"You gave them to me. To You I trust them", I say, make the sign of the cross on their backs, and go about my daily tasks.