Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise. (Psalm 100:4)
Have you ever played golf with a dog? I’ve had the pleasure on two occasions in the U.K. with two extraordinarily well-behaved four-legged friends. One was particularly adept at delivering head covers.
Our youngest Golden Retriever, Divot, was named after a dog I met at the NCAA Championship at Rich Harvest Farms. I must confess that our dogs wouldn’t do well on a golf course because they’d be desperate to greet every player on the tee sheet.
Still, it would be a dream day to round out a foursome with my best friends! If only we could always combine our favorite passions with our favorite people and pets.
When I put our toddler, Jordan, to bed at night, I recite The Lord’s Prayer and then freestyle a prayer. Jordan sometimes says, “You say one about dinos” or “You say one about animals.”
Basically, he wants me to talk to God about his favorite things.
Leave it to a child to remind us that prayers should be packed with thanksgiving and praise.
In Psalm 95, we are invited to shout for joy at the works of his hands:
Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord;
let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.
Let us come before him with thanksgiving
and extol him with music and song.
For the Lord is the great God,
the great King above all gods.
In his hand are the depths of the earth,
and the mountain peaks belong to him.
The sea is his, for he made it,
and his hands formed the dry land.
Before we petition God for more, we should take time to give thanks for what he’s already done.
Jordan recently started a new class at daycare, and on our drive to the church, I told him that we would pray in the parking lot about the new school year before we went inside.
Jordan started talking about dinosaurs, as is often the case, before asking, “And where is God?” God is everywhere, I told him. Wherever you go, God is there.
I want Jordan to know that yes, we pray before bed. But we also pray in cars and on courses and in locker rooms.
And we always give thanks for our favorite things, because as it is written in James, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”
PRAYER: Father God, we thank you for all the things in our lives that make our hearts soar. For our passions and friendships. For bright blue skies and time spent reveling in your creation. Forgive us of all that we take for granted.