A significant portion of communication between my fiancé and I is prayer. We don’t want our conversations to be merely dialog between him and me, but to intentionally involve the Holy Spirit.
In this season of long-distance, that looks like praying together over FaceTime. Sometimes I ask Bheki to pray in siSwati (the language of Eswatini; the language I’m slowly learning). By simply listening to his siSwati prayers, I’ve learned the words for “holy,” “God,” “grace,” and “Lord,” to name a few.
Once, Bheki said, “Ok, I’ll pray in English and you pray in siSwati,” with a smile.
If this exchanged had taken place in person instead of over a video call this picture (by Lauren Kobe) would have captured it well.
I laughed out loud.
But he was serious. So I tried.
“Babe loNgcwele
(Father, You are holy)
“Niyabonga naJesu
(Thank You for Jesus)
“Nkulunkulu, ngiyakutsandza nami
(God, I love you too – I got a revelation several years ago that I always get to tell God “I love You, too” because His love is always previous).
“Amen.”
(Yay! It’s the same in both languages. haha)
My incredibly limited vocabulary forced me to pray simply, with words even a toddler could say.
Yes, there is a time and place for the type of intercession where we pray with fervor and specificity. Pouring over the details on our hearts and the details on the heart of our good God through lots of words.
Yet, in the simplicity, I felt the power of truth rising to the surface of my heart in the most uncomplicated of phrases.
Where words lacked, grace abounded.
When was the last time you offered up some toddler prayers?
Where words lack, grace will abound.
(To any siSwati speakers reading this, thanks for your grace for any spelling/grammar errors!)
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