Checking In

 

Now that Anna Beth is mobile, walking and crawling anywhere she pleases, she’s getting a little more independent on where she wants to go.  Gone are the days where she stays right next to me, just content to be in my presence; now she’s on the go!  She wants to explore everything and every place she can. 

Even though Anna Beth’s journeys take her further away from her comfort zone right next to me, she uses a technique that I compare to that of bats using echolocation.  Bats make sounds as they fly through the dark to find out exactly where they are.  Anna Beth uses the word “hi” (said over and over) to let me know where she is and to find out exactly where I am.  If I don’t answer her “hi” check-in right away, she cries and lets it be known how unhappy that makes her.

God desires for us to check-in with Him in that same kind of way.  Our prayer relationship with Him should be constant, always letting Him know what is on our minds and where we are with Him.  It’s not that He doesn’t know how or where we stand, but He wants us to keep those lines of communication open with Him. 

1^st Thessalonians 5:17 tells us to “Pray without ceasing.”  God wants more than just a check-in of “hi” from us.  He wants a real relationship that we maintain because we want to be close to Him, to feel His love and to let Him know the desires of our hearts.  He is always near, just waiting for us to check-in with Him.