As I look out to the beautiful flowers that are blooming outside, I get pleasure from their beauty. But they didn't just accidentally happen. Someone had to take the time to plan the garden, buy the seeds and the bulbs and the bushes and trees. Then someone had to take the time to dig up the yard, plant the seeds, water them, and wait for them to grow. Now, I'm enjoying the fruit of that hard work.

Prayer can work like that too. We have to take time to pray, to go to God day after day. We praise him for his beauty and wonderful character, acknowledge that he is King of the universe and in control of everything. We ask him to take care of our needs, and we tell him our desires. We take the time to plant seeds of faith with God in heaven.

And we don't always see the fruit of our faith right away. But if we wait, we will see the answers to our prayers. We will see the great works of God in our lives. But the results of our prayers will be a whole lot more than just wishes granted. We'll have a picture of beauty in our hearts and in our relationships and in our work for the rest of our lives, because we took the time to do the faithful work for God's kingdom that he asked us to do.

Read more about this in The Ministry Of Motherhood.