"Jesus Wept. Amen."

When I was a child, I had a friend whose father was a Lutheran pastor. In fact, this pastor married my mother and stepfather. Her name was Sarah, and I remember that she and her brothers all had names from the Bible. I thought that was the weirdest thing I ever heard (even though the names were not really out there-no Rahabs or Nicodemuses). My name is not biblical, and neither are my brothers' names (except for my oldest brother, James Michael), so it was a strange concept to me.

The other thing I remember about Sarah is that she told me the shortest verse in the Bible: "Jesus wept." (John 11:35). I thought about Sarah last night because I was reading John 11, which details Jesus' journey to the sisters of his friend Lazarus. Lazarus died, and the sisters sent for Christ, who mourned his friend's death, signified by this shortest verse in Scripture.

I prayed very little when I was young, but after Sarah told me this, a combination of guilt over not praying and laziness lead me to pray nightly, "Jesus wept. Amen." I never read this verse in Scripture until I was an adult. But I prayed this nightly for a long time. I had forgotten all of this until last night.

The only significance of this seemingly insignificant story is that I don't remember praying much at all when I was a child, but in actuality, there are tidbits of my youth that remind me I did pray (at least for 1.5 seconds).

Most of us who don't think we are spiritual or reaching for God in any way, probably have had moments, even years, where we made some effort to have a relationship with God. Maybe it was a half-hearted effort, or a self-interested one, but some effort is better than none. And it is these small building blocks of "kinda-like-a-prayer" moments that may be the stepping stones to a real relationship with Christ.

So keep praying. Don't be discouraged if your children pray the same rote, prayer every night (my youngest prays for the safety of all animals, "wild and domestic"). I've tried to add some ad lib praying with my children so they don't get into a habit of only reciting without connecting to God.

But these efforts do mean something. "Jesus wept. Amen."