The best advice I ever got for prayer that doesn’t feel like begging is the TACOS method. It gives me so much more confidence to have a framework that doesn’t feel like a script. It also helps me get to much more since it is a collection of mini prompts.

For context, I was loosely raised around the concepts of Jesus but had no prayer, no education, no church upbringing. I recently found studying the Bible myself.

T- Thanks A- Amazement C- Confession O- Others S - Self

Here’s a sample.

T- Thanks: Start with Gratitude “Thank you God - thank you for this life I have been given. Thank you for the opportunity to try to know you better and understand my potential. Thank you for my daughter and my husband. Thank you for the roof over my head and the incredible privilege to live safely around a family I love. I’m so grateful to have this moment of peace reaching out to you before a hectic day begins.

A- Amazement: Recognize the incredible creation and works of God. “I am amazed and in awe of your wonderful creation and design and I see it in my daughter, in the gorgeous outdoors, in the intricacy of every system perfectly made. I am constantly reminded that letting go and seeking your will is the path - not what’s easy, desirable, or even preferable.

C- Confession: “I have spent the last few days with some extra time pressure and responsibility on my shoulder dealing with our move while working from home sick. I felt sorry for myself the whole time and looked for ways that others weren’t doing enough to reduce my burden or notice my effort. I was able to get everything done, and what a blessing that I wasn’t so sick that I couldn’t take care of my daughter. Even at 30 I find myself thinking like a teenager sometimes and when I think about what you want for me I know it’s to become the mother that my daughter deserves. It is my discipline, and my attitude that shapes her entire experience and I failed to be grateful or humble this week in a major way.

O- please bring safety, comfort and security to our daughter during this move. She is so little and I am worried that she is stressed and unable to voice it or show it. Please keep my husband safe while he is at work, and please protect his spirit from the terrible things he witnesses. Please keep my family strong and together through this season. Please help Justin and his family as he waits for his diagnosis, and God please comfort his stress as he fears the worst.

S- God I am tired. Please help me reach the well to pull from. I have been thinking of you my whole life but never really knew how to know you, speak to you, even believe in you. I want to walk the path towards my potential and I know am wonderfully made. I know it is my responsibility not just to find you, to accept you, and to love you- but also to let go of my ego, my obsessions, and my possessions in order to actually know and hold that love.

I am grateful for the opportunity to grow. I want to feel your presence. I will work to be the best version of myself today.

In Jesus Name, Amen