Indeed. All that matters.
I assume, though, A-G, that you still pray DAILY for family members etc???
You see, my particular “cross-eyed bears” are pride, ego, vanity and evil thoughts that seem to crop up through word or image associations as the day goes by. It could be something as simple as seeing a character portrayed in a movie who reminds me of someone I know (and thus I become judgmental) – or things sinister that happen in life.
At any rate, once I sense the presence of pride, ego, vanity or an evil thought (which happens much more often than I’d like) – I immediately repent of it and reboot my prayer vigil in the hopes of destroying the wrong before it becomes part of what I say, my facial expressions or actions and actually hurts someone else.
The prayer vigil begins with the “no strings attached” plea: Thy name be hallowed, Thy will be done, Thy kingdom come.
Then comes the pause and meditation that this is truly all that is important, i.e. not family, not friends, not enemies, not nations, not powers, not me – nothing.
Then I turn the prayer inward and pray first for help to keep my priorities straight, i.e. to love God absolutely and as a distant second, to love my neighbor unconditionally.
That’s when I lift up my “neighbors” in prayer for His blessing, peace and guidance. I pray generally and specifically for family, friends, associates and enemies. Then I lift up Christians and Jews, Jerusalem, the United States, Israel, our President and administration, and our service men and women. This lifting up is a continuance of specific prayers for specific people, e.g. healing or whatever.
Then, if I have forgotten any specific prayer request, I raise it at that time and try my very best to leave it there only to be revisited as a “lifting up.” Then I pause again and meditate on how insignificant I am in the face of all of this and reboot my background (always running) prayer.
That one is self-serving as I pray like a toddler, “up papaw, pweese” – asking Him to keep me transparent in Him so that His Light can shine unobstructed by me. And so it continues until I stumble over one of my “cross-eyed bears” again and become an obstruction by having a prideful, egotistical, vain or evil thought – and it all starts over.
Whew! Any hoot, I don’t know whether this personal prayer principle is of any use to you, but I just had to reveal it. You know how that goes. LOL!