When I helped in the Boys Brigade. I often used to ask the lads to contribute to the subject of the prayers we offered during the evening session, they’d usually come up with a friend or family member who was ill or a local news item .
One of the lads in the youngest group had been messing about all evening, and when we sat down for devotions he took his shoes and socks off – rather than interrupting the evening to speak to him about it I ignored it. When I asked the boys what we should pray about the lad was obviously playing for attention and piped up – “Let’s pray for smelly socks”.
During the ensuing sniggers from the other boys I realised that it was essential that we did pray for smelly socks.
When the laughter had calmed down I asked the boys how the socks could have got smelly.
We had a really good, quite serious, discussion and they came up with various suggestions as to how the socks had got smelly – people who had been working hard, people who had problems with their feet, people who couldn’t afford to wash their socks, those living on the streets who only had one pair of socks to their name, not forgetting those who had nice smelling socks because their Mum regularly laundered them. I abandoned my prepared devotions and concluded the discussion with a prayer for the “smelly socks” we had mentioned and for those who didn’t have any socks.
There are so many different things that lead us into prayer and it is important to thank God for creation, for things that have gone well, to bring to Him people we know who especially need our prayer at a particular time and to seek His guidance but I find that sometimes I need to break away from what may be a cosy routine to focus my thoughts and prayers on something different like “Thank you, Lord, for smelly socks”!
Try thinking of something unusual and then incorporate it into your devotions, it may bring a new dimension to your prayer life!