Bunmi Laditan Shares 5 Honest Prayers

Dear God,

I shoveled my elderly neighbor’s stoop this morning. He was angry that a closer neighbor, one he shares a porch with, never does his side. I shoveled the other neighbor’s side too, and it made the elderly neighbor angry. He said his neighbor didn’t deserve it. I told him nobody deserves anything. And I meant it. I get his anger. I do. But if we all treated people according to what they deserved, I think we’d all be in hell. And we are, to some extent. Better to just do things for you. That’s what I told him when he said I was a nice person. That I was doing it for you.

To be honest, I don’t like either of the neighbors, so it’s true. Hope you’re good.

Me

Dear God,

You sent your son to die to show your love. That’s intense. Van Gogh cut off his ear to show love.

Couldn’t you have just restored the Garden of Eden? Maybe put an electric fence around the tree?

Sometimes I think, If you’d let your son die, what will you let happen to me, who is not a blood relative?

Your kind of love scares me.

Me

Dear God,

My plan is to hide within your heart for life. I know that whatever happens, whatever spring arrives or dawn breaks, nothing will calm my spirit like yours. My soul finds rest only in your presence, and my healing begins only in your living waters.

Whatever happiness or joy I taste in this world, nothing can or has come close to the precious moments I’ve spent in silence with you. I’ve heard your voice, and it lives, echoing within the chambers of my consciousness. I crave more and feel heaven in my midst when I pray.

Stay close to me, reveal your secrets and keep me as a child and friend.

Stay near is all I ask.

Love,
Me

Dear God,

I know you do a lot. They say you hold the atmosphere together with your hands and command the sun to rise each morning. You know what I’d trade for all of that? Knowing without a doubt that you care. Drop the atmosphere and hold me.

Dear God,

Someone once said everything happens for a reason. I know that’s not true. Not every tragedy has your fingerprint on it. But you do see all. And you find us. In the dark. Weeping over our dead dreams and loved ones.

You take what this world broke, gently prying the ashes from our hands, and slowly lead us to still waters.

I don’t believe you cause every storm, but you plant flowers under our feet as we walk through them so that when your sun finally does peek out from behind the clouds, something blooms.

Thank you. Help us.

Love,
Me

This excerpt was taken from Dear God: Prayers to a God Who Listens by Bunmi Laditan. © 2021 by Bunmi Laditan. Used by permission of Zondervan.

Bunmi Laditan is an award-winning, Webby-nominated writer from California who lives in Quebec, Canada, with her family. She has contributed to the New York Times, Parenting, and the Huffington Post and is best known for the satirical Twitter account Honest Toddler and her debut novel, Confessions of a Domestic Failure. Her newest book is Dear God: Honest Prayers to a God Who Listens. You can connect with Bunmi on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Photograph © Andrew Dunstan, used with permission