Dear God,
                I like it when prayer is conversation, a completely open conversation with all walls broken, and no ulterior motives. Sometimes (or, in my case, every prayer for the past 16 years) prayer is a petition, but sometimes it's just a nice tea-time-esque chat.
                My mother has lately been praying with a group of other people (I was already judging her) for the country. They would assign each other a number of states, and then they would start. This is all very noble of course, this caring for all states of the country. But I hate it so much. This kind of prayer is not conversation. This kind of prayer is fake. My mother researches prayer points, jots them down in a little notebook, and prays according to these points. I'm ashamed of this kind of forced righteous behavior. I don't think it is right to force something as pure as prayer. If you care about someone, or something, you would automatically pray for them/it, you can't force yourself to pray!!
               So there is that problem with forced self-righteousness...

Cheers.

Dear God,
                I don't think blaming is a good idea. I don't.Every single time someone needs strength, they ask You to give it to them. They ask for Your guidance, and Your help. All of this is fine, I know, but then they start believing that You will make everything better; that they can just sit back, and relax while You do all the work. I know Jesus said bring me your yoke, and I will give you rest, but I think He meant that in a more "I will help a soldier carrying a 100 pound pack uphill by giving him encouragement, the mental strength necessary" way than, "I will carry that 100 pound sack for you, soldier!" I wish people would understand that You love us, and You have given us the biggest freedom, and probably best present of all - the freedom of choice. We are all allowed to do what we want; we can choose the route of our lives, You are there when we need You, but You would never just do parts of our lives for us.
               People blame You when things are good in their lives. They say that You made it better, but I know for fact that their choices made them have a good life (You may have put in your divine oar, bbut ultimately they brought about their happiness. However, if they blame happiness on You, they must blame sadness too! They must say things like, "Oh! God is so cruel to me! He made my life so terrible!" but they don't! (and when they do say things like that, they do not blame You for their happiness). People are so inconsistent. I believe You have given us free choice, all the happiness, and the sadness in the world is caused by us, and us only. I do not think a murderer was driven to this sin because of You.

I agree.
From: meetville.com

Cheers.

Dear God,
                I'm worried about college. This is all so hard. Why, oh why is everyone so connected, competitive, calm, and complete? I'm not ready am I?

I don't know where I'm going, and I don't know where I'm going to end up. I just want to ramble you know? I just want to see what the world You made for us has become, what we've made of it...I want to wander, get lost, and enjoy myself. I want to jump off the "highway of bland" I need a college that will help me get on those twisty-turny scenic side-routes. Am I saying that I don't want conventional success? Yes. That is exactly what I'm saying.
         I want to look around, and write, and observe. I have no clear ideas except this romantic notion. Are romantic notions over-rated? Would You say that it's anything more than a silly dream? Can I ever make this my goal?
            In the end, it's all up to You Lord. Where I go defines my future. Where I go defines what I do for the next 4 years, what I learn for the next four years..Guide me well.

Cheers.

Dear God,
               I read the first part of Corinthians chapter 11 for the plain reason that I should have something to write. Am I evil in that respect? You don't need to answer that because I already know.I should read the Bible more...I don't really know why I don't. All of the Christians I know read the Bible for duty, but I didn't want to be one among them, I wanted to be a person who actually read the Bible because she liked it. That's why I stopped reading the Bible in the first place, in an attempt to be more true to myself. A couple years later, here I am, reading the Bible once again for the sake of writing about it, but I think I was wrong the first time. I shouldn't have quit Bible reading until I found it enjoyable, I should have read the Bible until I enjoyed it.
  Why isn't the Bible interesting? It is just as capable of any book when it comes to impressiveness...I don't know what it is that turned me off it those years ago. The one thing I can say about it is Paul's language which is a bit confusing; he questions and answers, and it's all so mixed up. But I like how heartfelt it is. Sometimes, I find his language too strong, too full of feelings, and it surprises me quite a bit. But these are not deal-breakers, I know these could not have been the reason for my Bible-reading-hiatus. I must have found the Bible boring before, but I assure you I can handle it now (I mean, if people can read the Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace, and War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, I can read the Bible).
       I suddenly thought that I don't read the Bible enough because I "don't have time," but I had time for a whole day of reading Mansfield Park by Jane Austen yesterday. Why would I not be as drawn to the Bible as I am to Jane Austen? Perhaps it's because I am scared of what I am going to learn in the Bible? Scared that all my ways are condemned...I'm scared that I'm doing everything wrong, and prefer to be partially ignorant of my failures...But I already know about what is wrong and right (in both words' crudest senses).
       I know not what makes me repel the Bible. My children's Bible was always so very interesting, but my real Bible...it was a bit long, and harsh, but that was back when I read the Bible word-for-word. I have no defenses left. I have no reason to not read the Bible.
          Please help me just read it.

Cheers.

Dear God,
                I just realized that we all have different interpretations of You. We all believe that You are all-powerful and loving, but the rest of Your characteristics...they're to our discretion. I believe that You are the just God who the Founding Fathers of the Constitution believed in; the God who believes in the natural, unalienable rights we are all born with: equality, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; the God who lets things happen because You want to let us decide what our life is going to be like. You are, at least according to me, the God who loves us: our flaws, our thoughts, and our choices. I mean, You would never hate a murderer...would You? I believe that You understand what a sinner is going through, and wouldn't hate on him/her.
            The theme of Christianity is to let go of our human weakness. Human weakness lies in white lies, and on a higher level, caving in to people pressure and becoming a little too stressed. We will have to try hard to give up our human weakness, but just God, you're not about to just hate us because of our human weakness. You know that this weakness is built into our system, and You understand.

To me, You are the God of understanding, because understanding is something I crave. To someone who values truthfulness, I'm sure You are the God of truth. We all, those who believe in you anyway, believe different things about You. But I just realized that You are all of those things, You are the God of understanding, truth, happiness.....you are the God of EVERYTHING!

Cheers.

Dear God,
                You know that I haven't been talking, or even thinking, about anything of importance lately. My religious activity has, annoyingly, stooped to becoming high (bad word choice. I know.) only in my moments of desperation. I have fallen into many of these "non-Christian spells," and I've noticed my devoted Christian-ness drops still lower after each time. I'm on a slow, shallow staircase bound downwards. But before I stray off into a a paragraphs of self-pity, I'm going to say that Romans 9:12-18 has stunned me.

12 it was said to her, “The older will serve the younger.” 13 Just as it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

¹⁴ What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be!¹⁵ For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” ¹⁶ So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. ¹⁷ For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I raised you up, to demonstrate My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth.” ¹⁸ So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.

So God, You, made the murderers what they are? You made some people bad? You unjustly chose Jacob over Esau? But why? This, of course, explains all the evil in the world; so people aren't inherently bad? You just choose some to be bad and some to be good? Why would there be hell then? How could you put those people in hell, when You made them what they are?
             Is this a challenge? That we must let go of our human weaknesses? How come some people have it harder than others? I mean, some people have been condemmed to a life of sin, and it is going to be considerably harder for them to denounce their life and become good.
             I couldn't find the exact quote but it was something about the strongest suffering the most. You obviously give the strong at heart the biggest challenge. The lightweights in church, they can't boast...can they? Born and brought up a Christian, I can't have been one of the strong ones-I'm lucky.
             So God, you handpicked many to be inherently bad, but you were just challenging them, throwing them away and waiting for them to come back. You thought that they can handle the struggle. You gave us all choice- to see if we would give up our bodily weaknesses.
     This feels good. Thank you for helping me figure this one out :)

Cheers.

Christian Advice

Dear God,
                “Pray, everything will be okay...”
These words alone define the simple, heartfelt faith of a Christian. To a fellow Christian, it is just a reiteration of the known; a kind of moral support.
But to a non-Christian, it is a kind of savage curse. How can everything be okay without doing anything? How can just a prayer do anything at all? This isn't even advice!
I agree. To a non-christian, with no faith whatsoever, these words are empty; these words imply that one must sit around doing nothing until God notices. These words aren't advice to do something useful (at least in their context); they're like advice to do nothing.
Until there is faith that prayer is relief for the soul, prayer is equivalent to doing nothing. And this faith cannot be achieved by simply telling someone to try prayer (one does not simply try a new existential philosophy). This faith is created when the person learns to trust Christ and the beautiful story of the Bible-which has been passed down through the ages.
I believe that when a random person comes in need of advice, a Christian's standard response shouldn't be one which asserts their own faith, but one which actually tries to help. The building of faith must be gradual. A time of crisis, especially, isn't the best time for such faith-building, or a time to convince someone to step into the murky waters (as far as they're concerned) of a different religion.

I'm glad I've gotten that off my chest; I always feel pressurized to help people in need, but never know what to say. I really want to tell them to stop struggling and just believe (I clearly want to preach what I just can't seem to practice), but I also really don't want to be cast aside as a useless adviser.
I want to help, but I just can't seem to bring Christianity into the equation.

Cheers.