Hiding in plain sight; the humble prayer & pray-er

Perhaps the roots of the words "pray" and "praise" overlap somewhere in the mists of time; at least the quintessential composition of praying to God is meant to contain both elements: praise and thanks, as well as the part that usually preoccupies the supplicant, the "ask." In any event, if my growing up experience is typical, then prayer tended to be of two kinds: public, ceremonial ones in the course of worship or start of a sporting event, or else the ones around a feast table for Sunday dinner (with or without guests) or holiday time. In other words, the idea of pausing before each sit-down meal or to open and close one's wakeful day with prayer time; or equally foreign was the notion of scheduling a disciplined time for setting aside one's cares to pray for others known and those more distant in the world or the echelons of social order. And yet these private times, unadorned and low-tech (requiring little more than one's attention and care, no matter the time or place), perhaps are the core of reaching toward God and building habits of relationship. One result of frequent praying is 'normalization'; that is, praying becomes commonplace and usual, whether in a public place or not. Another result is 'practice makes perfect'; that is, the words come more fluently with practice and the ability to engage with thoughts and feelings nimbly as they dance through one's mind also grows stronger. Perhaps most important of all is the effect that repeated, frequent praying has on the heart of the pray-er (the one who prays): continued praising of God, thanking for God's goodness, and loving one's neighbors (indeed, loving one's enemies) results in a mind and heart that is ever more aware of other's needs and less so one's own. The upshot of powerful praying over long periods of one's life is a change in heart toward one ready to hear God's Will and follow. So something that a young or newcomer God-worshiper perceives at first as an inert, inactive, fixed piece of a worship service actually is the one action that a person can take to  propel his or her spiritual development forward. The humble, heartfelt prayer is so important, but is overlooked because it rests in plain sight!