The Adult ADD prayer

Our Father who art in heaven…
…why is he “who art” in heaven. That’s a funny word, “art” it sounds like a seal barking…that would be funny: a seal barking.. art! art! art! …

Sorry, God…ah, hem… who art in heaven…
…I wonder if heaven’s purple?
I wonder if it’ll be fun there…will they play rock n’ roll or some of that old time Gospel music I heard once at that barber shop.
He really cut my hair short that day…
…man I hate it when you wear that shirt you wore the next day…
…that shirt you wear when you get your hair cut and then put it on the next day and it’s all itchy. ….

Sorry God…ah, hem…sorry sorry…hallowed be thy name…
Is it hollowed? … Or Howard?
Why hallowed? Is it up? Is it down?
Would hallowed be polka dotted or more of a valor feeling to it.
I think my grandma had something that was valor once. I should call her.
She sent me a birthday card last week. …
…no…
…I was supposed to send her a birthday card last week

FOCUS.
FOCUS.
FOCUS.
…

Oh yeah…hallowed by thy name…I’m sorry, God, I keep getting off track
…your kingdom come…
I was always told that I wouldn’t actually do what I was told until kingdom come…is that what I’m praying for?
If it’s kingdom come why shouldn’t I do what I was told…

…did I feed the cat this morning?
…

I am so sorry, God…your will be done…
…
… …
What in the world does that mean?
Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven…
I really have to wonder if heaven’s purple? Seriously God, heaven just seems like it’d be purple to me

focus
focus
FO CUS.

Give me this day my daily bread…
Or pizza…why do they call it pizza? What’s with that ‘tsza’ sound…
…why can’t they spell it phonetically….
…why isn’t phonetic spelled phonetically…
…how would you phonetically spell pizza…
…would it be peetzsa?
What about give me this day my daily peetzsa…would it be okay to also pray for help with my check book…did I pay the car payment?

…did I feed the cat

FOCUS

Dear lord, I was trying to pray for someone…not I can’t remember. I was told to pray that you forgive others as you’ve forgiven me…but …wait…no, that’s why I was praying…

You know what Lord just please help me to focus on you. Forgive me from wandering. Help me not get distracted by shinny objects when I try to look to you.

...help me to focus on praying to you
… help me focus living for you
… Help me focus serving you
… keep me from wandering

...

…oh yeah, and Amen.

Spiritual ADD

I'm ADD. I really am. Though at times I like to call it ADHLAS (Attention Deficit...Hey, Look! A Squirrel!)The joking question in my family when I get distracted is "shiny object?"

I was diagnosed with it 6 years ago while in sem. It explained a lot to me. It was a no brainer to everyone who knows me. But I didn't go on meds. Why? Because I wanted to attempt behavioral modification instead. I have nothing against meds for ADD/ADHD. In fact, I know from experience doing youth group that is VERY helpful. But I personally didn't want to use it. But, seasons change, and so do I. I've recently went on a newish ADD/ADHD med that seems to be helping. We're still fiddling with it. Still trying to see what works best. It's a process we're working... squirrel! Sorry, where was I? Oh yes. ADD.

A few things about being ADD. It's not just having a hard time focusing. It's having a hard time sitting still, finishing tasks. You want to but in on everyone's conversation because you don't want to be left out. You can get distracted very.. shiny object.. easily.

But there's also the problem of hyper focusing. That's when for some reason or another, you just zone in on one thing and one thing only and spend eternity perfecting it, ignoring the world around you.

Why is this on a blog about being healthy and being spiritual? Because, I truly think that there's such a thing as Spiritual ADD. To be honest, I think it's a Biblical thing too. I truly think that Peter was the first documented case of ADD. He's jumping into boats, jumping out of boats, blurts out the wrong thing at the wrong time, brings a knife to a gun fight.

Yeah.

But he also was spiritually ADD. He couldn't always focus on what was happening spiritually. Jesus tried to explain what was going to happen, and Peter blurted out that it shouldn't happen. Peter thought he was doing right be defending Jesus but he was taking spiritual matters into his own hands. He was hyper focused why warming himself, not realizing what was fully going on with Jesus' trial until the rooster crowed.

We do that too. We can have spiritual ADD. This is most evident in prayer. We start to pray, and then we lose focus. We fidget.. we look at our watch, we start thinking about the tasks of the day, refocus on God, then loose track about what we were praying about.

This also happens in our daily faith walk as well. We're distracted by spiritual shiny things that get in the way. We focus on the spiritual squirrels of life and start to lose sight of the cross of Christ.

Other times, we can hyper focus just on one thing. We can become so hyper focused about being able to walk on the water that we forget the fact that it isn't about us walking on the water but more so about getting out of the boat and focusing on Jesus.

There are no meds for Spiritual ADD. There's only behavioral modification. And it does work, but it takes time and a conscious effort to move forward walking towards the cross. It takes effort to focus on Jesus and not be distracted by shiny objects of spiritual squirrels.

Where in your spiritual walk do you need to do behavioral modification in focusing on the cross of Christ? How can you do that?