Pray for me!

(Yes, sorry - another religion one)

I'm sure a lot of people who have read my blog are already praying ABOUT me if not for me. "Please God," I imagine them to plead "please don't let her influence young children."

I admit to being a Facebook addict, and I have also come to the realization recently that I have been way too generous with the connections I allow on there. To be fair, I have connected with people from my past that I wouldn't give up now for all the tea in China (never mind that I don't drink tea, it's just an expression). But some days, I just have to wonder if maybe I shouldn't set some more strict criteria (read "any at all") to my standards of whom I will accept as Facebook friends. Recently I've started hiding a whole group of people, although I don't have the heart to "unfriend" them. These are the people who ask for prayers in their status updates.

Especially annoying are those who ask for prayers for mysterious reasons or those who ask us to pray for their friends (named or unspecified, doesn't matter). Now I'm not saying that there isn't somthing to this power of prayer phenomenon. Positive thinking has been shown to be helpful in many cases. Of course, you can positively influence your future by also makeing careful choices about your own behavior . . . but I realize that some things are simply beyond our control.

It's not the quoting of scripture that bothers me, either. Unless, of course, it is being used to condemn others. I love quotes in general, and when they are used in a meaningful way they are even better, whether they are from scripture or other literature.

What I find intolerable is when people ask for prayers and imply that the more prayers that are received, the more God is likely to listen. I want to say to them "This is NOT American Idol!People!" God isn't waiting for his prayer-phone to ring to see how many calls he gets from each of the righteous in behalf of the pitiable. Or maybe he does, and that explains why there are little children that hide in closets praying that dad/brother/mother/stepparent/whoever doesn't come to get them again tonight. They are only one small prayer for the cause, while THOUSANDS of Facebook strangers may be praying to the same diety in hopes that Mr. Skippy John Jones will be able to conceive another child. If that's the way it works, I don't like it. So, I'm just going to reject the whole idea, hope for the best, and try to stay positive. That is, after I remove these annoying people from my Facebook News Feed.