Ronald Reagan, fortieth president of the United States of America, was known for using the phrase "trust but verify" frequently. He used it in the context of negotiating with the U.S.S.R. for nuclear weapon restrictions, but it can be correctly used in many other contexts too.

In the software development world where I used to work, this concept was used frequently, although it was called unit testing. A unit test is code that tests another piece of code to verify that it does what the programmer thought it should do. A very simple example might be that if you were writing the software for a calculator, then after creating the addition capability, it would make sense to verify that if you give it two and two, that you get the answer four. Over time a project builds up a collection of tests that ensures that the primary software does exactly what is expected from it. This is very reassuring for the technical lead (as I was) when it was time to put the code live and start letting other people use it.

Testing things to ensure that they are what they claim to be is sensible. The scriptures call for us to test the things of the Lord to verify that he is everything that he claims to be, using the analogy of taste testing (Psalm 34:8). The apostle John encourages us to try every spirit, ensuring that it is of God, which is important advice to ensure that we are not allowing ourselves to be influenced by ungodly and worldly sources (1 John 4:1).

I recently learned of The Blind Boys of Alabama and enjoyed listening to a variety of their songs. My favorite one is this wonderful cover of Amazing Grace, with the original words sung to the tune of The House of the Rising Sun. An unusual combination, but it works really well and I love it.

During my time as a pastor I heard many excuses for not praying about a situation. I'll save some of the excuses for other posts, but this time I'd like to address the issue of not praying about a situation because of the size of that situation. I found it interesting that there was no commonality in the size of the situations that caused this lack of prayer.

Some folks would not pray about something because they believed that it was too small a matter to bother the Lord with. Others would not pray because they believed that the matter was way to big to feel comfortable taking it to God. Can't pray about it because it's too small and also can't pray about it because it's too big.

There are no size requirements or limitations in the scripture for prayers. None. We are told that we should have faith for our prayers to be answered (James 5:15). We are told to have belief that our prayers will be answered (Mark 9:23), but even that person received help with their unbelief (Mark 9:24-25). We are told to "come boldly before the throne of grace" (Hebrews 4:16) for our prayers to be answered. But at no point is size mentioned.

Describing your child's age can be challenging, especially when talking to those who have not yet had much experience with children themselves. Every so often I'll see a social media post (written or video) complaining that parents are illogical in how they describe their children's ages. A classic one is wondering why parents switch from days to weeks, to months and then years and sometimes back to months. It's a fair question, but their suggestion of just using years is completely unhelpful after even just a few moments of thinking about it.

Most adults use whole numbers of years to describe their age. This makes perfect sense. As I write this I tell people that I'm 58, when in reality I am 58 and 7 months. Like most other adults I just round down. I wont tell anyone I'm 59 until the actual day of my approaching birthday. The reason that this approach is reasonable is that rounding 58 and 7/12 down to 58 doesn't lose much precision. We're dealing with larger numbers and no one really gets that excited about birthdays after 21. (Except my daughter who looked forward to being 25 so she could start saving on her car insurance.)

When we are describing the ages of children, we are dealing with much smaller numbers and a faster rate of change in their development. A year makes a huge difference when observing children. A year really doesn't make difference with me. My height, weight and general feelings about life don't change much across a year. Also, the rounding down thing is tricky, because under a year old, you'd round them down to zero and no one likes being described as zero years old.

Prayer is interesting stuff. And having said that, I feel like I should immediately issue an understatement alert. Prayer is the art of mankind communicating with God and the moment you include the Lord in any matter, the possibilities become limitless. Prayer, therefore, is a big subject. Entire conferences and sermon series have been dedicated to the subject. Scholarly books have been written on prayer, helping us understand the different types and purposes of prayer. This is absolutely right and proper. A good understanding of prayer is important and needful. Back when I was pastoring, I would have my wife teach on prayer on a regular basis. She is a good prayer and very knowledgeable on the subject.

Admiring, as I am, of the scholarly side of prayer, I am a completely uncivilized peasant on the practical aspects. My approach on prayer is that it’s talking to God (and that we should try to remember to shut up now and then because every so often he is gracious and replies to us). So I talk to God throughout the day, not on a schedule, but as I have things that I want to share with the Lord, my friend who sticks closer than a brother. I've been like this since I first entered the church.

One of my first personal observations about prayer was that the best encouragement to pray was seeing answered prayer. There's just something about seeing a matter that you, or others you know, have prayed for be resolved. "Well, that prayer got answered, so I feel good about asking this prayer!"