And Lord we just....

Prayer tics. They can make you crazy, they can make you lose your whole Spirit led train of thought. Prayer tics are those maddening words that people run in the ground by repeating 10-15 times during a 45 second prayer. They range from repeating 75 different names for God, as if He forgot you were talking to him, to the ever famous "We JUST want to thank you...we JUST blah blah blah....We JUST...you get the idea. How about this one"Dear Father, dear Lord" These two always come together in fast succession.

I am asking my family to listen intently over the next week and inform me of my prayer tics. I mean really, would I talk to Wayne or the girls and use tics instead of real live words? My favorite prayers to listen to are the ones where the person is really just talking to someone that sounds alot like their friend and surprise it's God! I am peeking up to see if He is standing there in our circle. Don't get me wrong. God is certainly worthy of all our reverence and respect, but don't you think He is smiling at us and thinking" Just quit with all the fancy words and spit out what you want!" After all, my most effective prayers have been when I just cry out to Him what's on my heart. Sometimes crisis takes the polish off your prayers and you find yourself crying out real live words to a real live God.
So what is your prayer tic?