Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us today the food we need, …

If asked, many people would say they don’t relish “routine”.  I, on the other hand, love routine.  I am best when, at least in the morning I get to follow my routine.  And I look for people and ideas that reinforce the importance of routine.  i am reminded of the power of routine each time I boot up my computer.  If the boot-up routine didn’t happen in the exact same order each time, it would be chaos and we wouldn’t be able to predict if our computer would work or not. Last week David Brooks wrote of how routine is the precursor to creativity.  He says that routines leads to creativity.  I loved it and it is true.  If we don’t have the foundational stuff in place then we can’t expect to be able to let our minds work, wander, wonder and do great things.  There is much comfort and safety in routine.  We might want to think of this when we do our work, assign work, make decisions or brainstorm.  Don’t expect much to be spawned from chaos.

Jesus taught us well.  He said, do this when we pray (which He was also telling us to do).  He gives us the direction to say this prayer as we ask for our daily bread.  Thank you Lord for the direction!  Shall we choose to follow His example of routine and see what happens?  I think we should!

Reference:  Matthew 6:9-13 (New Living Translation)