Ancient Discipline?

I listened to someone talk about some "ancient disciplines."

Things like: fasting, taking communion, reading liturgy, and others I can't remember.
One of them that stuck out to me was: praying at certain times a day, every day.

This kind of made something in me rise up and say 'no, that is too legalistic. That's a box. I don't like boxes.'

But when I really thought about it, I found some solid truth in it, so I decided to just try it out.

She recommended praying at 9, 12, 3, 6, and 9-o'clock. You stop whatever you're doing and you just say a little prayer. If you're at work, just stop for less than a minute and pray about something. Talk to our Father. If you're not doing anything, than you can pray longer! Just whatever. Just a reminder to talk to him in our crazy, busy world

And the point of it is to know that there are others, in the body of christ, praying at the same time as you. It's community. It's uniting your spirits, no matter where you may be. Now, you have to get others to do it with you in your community for that part to be true. Which is what I'm hoping will happen. =)

I've been doing it for like 3 weeks.

When I first thought about it, I thought there was no way it would work because I would just forget....then I realized that my cell phone comes with all these different alarms you can set that, up until now, I had no purpose for! So I set them for noon, 3:00, 6:00, and 9:00. (i'm not awake at 9 am a lot so ill skip that).
Most of the time the alarm goes off, I'm with people, talking or something. So I just don't do it right then. (But its still a nice reminded to be thinking about my Father) And that's okay. Other times, I'm doing something alone, so I can stop for about a minute and just lift some things up to Daddy that have been going on in the past few hours. Other times, I'm driving or I'm not really doing much, so I can pray for much longer. But those times are few and far between.

Another thing I first thought about was, 'well juliette, you're kind of always talking to Father, aren't you? Something comes to mind, and you just start talking to him about it. So will this be any different? Why would I need to schedule a time for it, when its a normal almost moment to moment sort of conversation.' So I tried it out to see if that was the case.

Turns out it IS a little different.

First off, Juliette needs things to make her just STOP sometimes, because she is always going, going, going in that head of hers. Even when she's talking to Daddy, it just can get a little crazy and all jumbled together. So this is a time where a physical alarm goes off that then triggers a spiritual and mental alarm inside of me, saying "Stop whatever you're doing or thinking, Juliette, and just breath and talk to your Father. Talk to him about what you're thinking crazily about." And that has been great for me, even when its just one minute.
One minute is better than no minute, eh?

Second off, this will provide a more communal spirit than just praying and talking to God whenever it happens through out my day. Of course, I continue to do taht, but it would be great to know that at these certain times there are other brothers and sisters praying with me. We may be praying about the same things sometimes and most of the time it might be completely different. Who knows!

So I feel no legalism; no boxes; no failures. None of that poop. Just a reminded every now and then, and if I can do it, then I do it! And if not, then oh well!

My invitation to those reading this: join me!
The times are there. Set your own physical or mental alarms.
Do whatever.
Let me know if you would like to try this so we can know we're doing to at the same time.

If its not for you, that's totally cool. I'm just offering, in case some one is interested!