In this day and time, everyone needs a prayer. It’s hard getting through each day without some type of event that shows its ugly little head, forcing you to say a prayer or two, of some type; even just an “oh God or my God.” Unknowingly, we say that constantly. You hit your toe, “Oh God,” or according to your upbringing, you might even say that other little nasty word, and then say “excuse my French.” But more often than we think, we say a prayer or two throughout the day.

Everyone needs someone to talk to. And sometimes, it’s better to give it to God (Jesus) in a prayer, if you don’t want anyone, and I mean no one else to know of it. More times than many, prayer is needed throughout any given day to any and all types of people.

Prayer is the one thing that basically keeps us sane, and more times keeps us from popping a pill every time something goes wrong. You know, life never stops. It basically repeats itself over and over again bad or good, in all our lives. If it didn’t happen to you, it happened to your foreparents and their parents, and so on.

There is nothing new under the sun.

With prayer, we can calm our nerves to a degree so we don’t have to go and jump off a bridge or take some other drastic move. With prayer, we can say, “This too shall pass.” With prayer, we can carry on as if nothing ever happen, knowing that there is a God, and we can trust in him to deliver us from the awfuls in this world, on a daily basis, second by second.

With prayer, our parents and their parents made it through their generations. You think it’s hard in your generation, look at all the things they had to endure, but you see them with a smile on their face looking like they don’t have a care in the world in their old age. You know why?

They will tell you it was prayer. They will tell you that if it had not been for the Lord (God) on their side, they wouldn’t have made it thus far. Listen to them. They can tell you a story or two, and even of the some close encounters that almost took them out of this world; but God, they would say, saw fit that they continue to live (in other words, they will say God wasn’t ready for me yet). Yes, in God they trusted their lives, their heart aches and pains, their beaten down bodies, with diseases and ailments. Yes, they have made it to their 80s and 90s, looking like they’re in their 60s and 70s.

Where is this prayer today? It’s in your hand. Yes, literally, it’s in your hand. None of us, young or old, should say we don’t have time to pray. I say this because, if we can find time to transact/spend money, we should have time to pray. We spend money on this, and on that.

If it’s not grocery, it’s clothing; not water, it’s some type of refreshment (alcohol or none); not clothing, it’s footwear; not a debt to pay, it’s taking a chance at gaming; not helping a family member out, it’s helping a friend with financial problems. What I’m saying is, there is no reason we shouldn’t find time to pray. Why, because each day while we are transacting money, in dollars and coins, all we have to do is take a second or two and read the words on our currency, it reads “in God we trust.” That is a prayer all in itself. Prayers doesn’t have to be all long and drawn out, and kneeling down on your knees. Sometime, there isn’t time for that, a car coming straight toward you “Jesus!” (a prayer); Something about to fall on you, Lord! (a prayer).

So each day as you spend money, look closely at it, and say a prayer (in God we trust).
Beverly Gibson is a Ferriday resident.