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Prayer has always fascinated me although I have to admit I have not always been as prayerful as I need to be. It is a practice that many rely on only when they have come to the end of their lists.

Reading this week I came across a point of view of prayer that I had not seen before. In reading the book ?Chase The Lion? by Matt Batterson, he writes that the aramaic word for prayer is "slotha" and it carries the meaning, to set a trap.That is an interesting word picture. Prayer is more than just acknowledging God and sharing with Him our desires and needs. It is preparing the path before me to set out traps to capture the blessings and opportunities that are before me.

Through the act of prayer we are preparing our steps along our daily path to capture and experience each blessing God has, each turn of the path that comes before us, and each opportunity that is there along the way. Those things are trapped by God and are waiting for us in our journey.

God says, "I have come that you might have life, and have it to the full". Part of that means that there are blessings and opportunities He has placed on our daily path and we can only seize them or capture them through prayer.

What does God have for you? Time can only tell but one thing I know many of them can only be experienced when we pray. 

You will discover through your reading a close kin to some of these. Some of these experiences will bring a nod and a smile. That is my desire. I want to share these memories with you in hopes of stirring your past. As you read you will probably remember your own experiences. I believe this is part of our inheritance that we need to leave with others who perhaps were not as fortunate and can come along side and join us as we turn back the pages of our life. It is my prayer that you will enjoy seeing yourself and your childhood.

Special Clothes

As far back as I can remember there were always a special set of clothes I had that had been designated as 'church clothes'. I have shopped many stores in my life and been in the different departments within the store but I have yet to discover the 'Church Clothes' department. Yet growing up I had them. They were like the official church uniform. Just like a soldier has a certain style and look about their uniform, growing up I had my church clothes.

They were for church use only. I can hardly remember wearing these clothes any other time or occasion. They were designated my Sunday church clothes. This would be another reason I didn't like Sundays. It was not just the going to church, but it was wearing those clothes.

We can begin with the shoes. They were dress shoes and boys and dress shoes were not a good combination. They always were tight on my feet and since they were hardly ever worn, they never go 'broke in'. They were stiff and by mid morning my feet were always hurting. Those shoes were where I learned to polish your shoes. My dad would hand me the shoe polish, a rag that looked like it was ready to be tossed, and a shoe brush. Later on I learned how to add a wad of spit to that acquired skill. They might have had a nice Sunday morning shine to them but there were not anything to compete with my keds or my converse canvas high tops.

Next were the britches. I can't think of anything nice to say about them. As a kid growing up I would outgrow things quickly. Since my mother had a sewing machine and knew how to use it, those britches could hang around a long time. The worst thing was to wear them for the two hours on Sunday morning. I would have rather had a tooth pulled. Anything was more pleasant than this torture. The inside of the pants leg felt like tiny bugs chewing on my legs. I spent most of my time in church scratching them. After enough complaints my parents discovered a solution to the itching lining. This of course consisted of wearing my pajamas beneath my britches. They would act as lining. This did solve the itching problem but brought along with it a couple of new irritations. First they would always bunch up and my legs looked liked someone who should be on display at the county circus. The other irritation was that I grew up in Texas and wearing two pair of long pants on Sunday in the Texas summer was horrendous. I probably lost weight from wearing those layers of clothing.