There’s a time for everything or at least that’s what Ecclesiastes promises. A time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to dance, and, yes, a time to sit in the kitchen with your hands around a cup of coffee, whispering prayers you can’t quite form into sentences.

Prayer has always found me in the in-between. Not just in the grand, dramatic moments the “God, please help” hospital room prayers or the “thank You” after a miracle but in the small pauses. In the kitchen, slicing August tomatoes so ripe they stain the cutting board. In the farmers market, running my fingers over baskets of okra and green beans. In the middle of stirring peach jam, waiting for it to set. This August, the season’s offering feels like a parable in itself: peaches and nectarines at their peak, plump figs, watermelons heavy enough to require two hands. Tomatoes of every shape and color. Cucumbers that snap when you slice them. Corn sweet enough to eat raw. Basil so fragrant it feels like perfume for the soul. When I’m chopping, stirring, or shelling peas, I find myself slipping into conversation with God. Sometimes it’s gratitude “Thank You for this, for today, for the chance to make something good.” Sometimes it’s confession, sometimes it’s pleading, sometimes it’s silence. Cooking in August feels like standing at the altar, only the altar is my countertop and the offering is a basket of produce.

Prayer has changed me because it’s taught me there’s a season for every kind of word and every kind of silence. There are prayers I’ve been praying for years that still hang in the air unanswered, and yet, I keep praying them. Because prayer isn’t just about getting something. It’s about being changed in the asking, being softened in the waiting. Like seasonal produce, my prayers taste different depending on the month. In August, they’re ripe and sweet, bursting with gratitude and color. In other seasons, they’re leaner, more like winter citrus bright but bracing.

Ecclesiastes 3 says, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.” I think prayer is how we live through those seasons the sweet, the bitter, and everything in between.

So today, I’m asking you: When do you turn to prayer? And how has it changed you? And if you need a reminder of how God shows His goodness in every season, just look at what August gives us…

Gracefully yours,

Help keep the words flowing and the stories brewing.
Buy Me a Coffee

Reference
Niequist, S. (2024). Celebrate Every Day. Zondervan.