How many times a day do you pray? A normal person would pray at least five times.

You would pray before each and every meal, that would be three times right there, and your wake up and good nights to God. As you enter and exit the bed. But the nice thing about that requirement is that it is very easy to fulfill and all normal people have already long had the habit of thanking God for every bite of food before they consume it anyway.

The most important thing to remember about saying grace and all other prayers is the any type of "standard" or repetitive prayer is no longer acceptable. All prayers must now be unique. God is like you and he too can be bored to tears by mindless repetition. Your prayer does not have to be a masterpiece authored by Shakespeare, simple is fine as long as it is not the same words repeated over and over.

A rough example of the TYPE of prayer that God would find pleasing before each meal would be the following. This sample prayer to the beloved one is a good rendition because it endeavors to cover each of the main areas of praise and thanksgiving that should be addressed in a proper prayer of grace to the beloved one. The most important thing is to not use this prayer verbatim, the beloved one only likes new and unique prayers, a standard or repeating prayer demonstrates a complete lack of care and reverence and should never be used.

Dear Father,

Thank you Father for this wonderful food. Thank you for creating all these marvelous ingredients, and for giving us this wonderful recipe and the spices that all combined to create this savory meal. Thank you my dearest for coming here and for joining with us today, and for sharing your food with us as we gather together to enjoy this wonderful bounty. All praise and glory only to you my love.

I love you.

Amen and Amen.

(Note: you may substitute the name "Shekinah" for the word "Father" in this or any other prayer. Either term would be fine.)

If one of the family members is taking their turn and saying the prayer for the whole family gathered together, they would all hold hands, bow their heads and end the prayer with something like, "All praise and glory only to you my love, WE love you, Amen and Amen".

Do all prayers of grace have to be said on your knees in order to be fully pleasing to God? No. In a group setting or in a public setting (restaurant) the prayers of grace can be said sitting down without any prejudice from God. However if your are in a more of a solitary setting, it is just you and God alone together, then there is no justifiable reason to not say the prayers on your knees. God would look on it as a type of gross insult for you to just mumble something and chow down. Either you are very lazy or you lack all reverence for God. So you are a "bare minimum" type of person? Hmm.. they do not live very long.

God is right there with you, only a foot or so away, so make it very personal like you know that he is right there and that he is surely listening to the prayer, because in fact he listens and he hears each and every prayer made by his beloved children.

A normal person would also have a morning and an evening prayer of praise and thanksgiving to the Lord. The best prayers are a simple listing of all the thing that you are thankful for. Never ask for material things in prayers. That being said you might then start to understand just how redundant and unnecessary it is to think that you have to tell the Father anything about your situation or needs, believe me he already knows. Stick to telling him all the things he doesn't know like just how thankful you are for the blessings and provisions that you already have, that is the only path that will work well with the Father.

It is a tradition that the morning and evening prayer be said on your knees in a quiet isolated room. It is a tender time just between you and the Father. In the morning you would drop to your knees right after your feet first hit the floor, before you go to the bathroom. Thanking the Father for a wonderful nights rest, for any wonderful dreams that he may have given you and generally just for being alive yet one more day. In the evening you would list all the things that you are thankful for that happened to you or to your family during that day. If you can not think of anything to thank God for at that moment, just go ahead and thank him anyway if just for your next heartbeat, believe me he is the one that is giving that to you.

If you make a normal prayer (not a prayer of grace) that is not on your knees, it would cut its effectiveness by about 80%. You could only create a weak, wimpy and practically worthless prayers if you made them off of your knees. It would have virtually no effect at all as God is affronted by your disrespect. If praying on your knees was good enough for Jesus. It should be the bare minimum requirement for you.

And all prayer should be very personal, it should be very intimate, and most importantly each prayer should be unique. Don't be in a hurry, what is the rush? God savors these very few minutes with you, do not devalue them by being in a hurry.

God loves you, do you love him?

Tell him so.