Blogs - Chief of Pray Blog

Love is a Many Other Thing

Max and Ivy broke up. That’s what Max is saying to anyone who asks. Maybe it was nothing more than a school-boy crush, maybe it was true love lost. Time will tell: Max is 3 years old. Ah-ha, I snuck in an adorable grandchild story! We’ve been egging Max on ever since he first asked for a play date with his female pre-school classmate. It’s irresistible for adults not to react when our little ones do something so darn cute. My grandson Max is one smart kid; he knows when something gets a laugh the first time— play it up!

My editor and I are getting ready for our first Pray Maker Awards meeting and party. We all work virtual at Prayables, so partying for us means a wild hour of conference calling with some of us sitting around in our pajamas. When you work at home, you can go days without ever getting dressed. We’re recognizing the writers who have prayers that have reached the most women. There’s different ways to judge the popularity of a prayer. We can see how many “hits” a prayer has and we can see which prayer gets the highest amount of “opens” when it’s the Daily ePrayable. Yet after all these months, we still can not predict which prayers will rise to the top. If there’s any pattern at all, it seems to be forming around what doesn’t work. Maybe it’s poor marketing, but as much as people love their pets, dead dog and cat memorials do not go viral.

You would think love would be the most popular category. We do see a lot of activity around prayers with titles like Unending Love, but for every one who selects Soul Mate,  someone else selects Inertia. Could it be that as women we are not as consumed with our love lives as advertisers suggest? I’m seeing proof of that emerging as I analyze what issues women of the Prayables community are looking to pray on. We’re concerned about kindness. Prism of Compassion set an all-time record of best daily prayer and Soul of Philanthropy is in the top 5. We love our weekends. Seventh Day and Saturday Energy Rush are consistent top performers. And, we’re plucky, positive, and prayerful. No More Stinkin' Thinkin', I Am Ageless, and Heart Opened are prayed with most often on the site.

We encourage our kids to find love and be in love. It starts early with toddlers like Max and Ivy. It continues as we get involved in the prom date rituals for our teenagers, the college romance that trigger talk of “maybe this it.” We are relentless with our young adults. An unattached man or woman over 30 doesn’t stand a chance against our burning desire to fix-them-up. So how come when the dust settles, love is just one of many interests in our lives? Let’s stop to realize: while love for a partner is beautiful, we are so much more.

I want my life to ring,
to surge like a cello,
deep and moving
graceful and resonant—
the sound of Your voice
when you speak to me.

I hear little songs in my mind
of Your promises.
They carry me through each day,
and I dance.

-Miranda Claudius