Nebraska Synod ELCA

Written By: Deacon Sunni Richardson

Car time provides the opportunity to practice prayer and develop new prayer practices. Whether it’s a road trip to a fun vacation designation or the memorized path to the ball field, you can use travel time for prayer. 

Here’s a few ideas to get you started:

• When you hear a siren the first thing you need to do is to look around and make sure you are not in the way of the emergency vehicle. When you know you are safely out of the way, take a deep breath and offer a prayer for the safety of those going to the emergency and for those who need assistance.  
• When you are on state or county roads you may come on historical markers. Stop and read the sign and offer a prayer for those named and the big picture of their lives which may have included sacrifice, loneliness, danger, happy celebrations, goodbyes and hellos. 
• Download a map showing the Native American tribes of Nebraska. As you travel over the sacred lands once home to specific tribes offer a land acknowledgement prayer. Your prayer may begin with “I/we want to acknowledge that we are on the traditional territory of (nation/tribe names)”. Or “We would like to honor all the ancestral stewards of this land on which we meet/stand/view and their descendants living in over 1,000 Tribes, Nations. Bands, Pueblos, Communities or Native Villages.” The Indigenous people who lived/live in Nebraska include Omaha, Santee Sioux, Cheyenne, Ponca, Lakota, Otto, Winnebago, Pawnee, and Arapaho. 
• Country roads often provide a place to stop the car and take in the land. Find a place to safely park, get out of the car and take in the 360-degree view of the land. Offer a prayer for the land, the people who once lived here and the signs of life that you see in the fields, houses, barns, equipment and mailboxes. 
• Our Tanzania Lutheran friends (ELCT) always offer prayer when you climb in the car and at the end of the day when everyone piles out of the vehicle. Incorporate this ritual into your daily travel routine encouraging family members to take turns offering prayers. 
• Many of us grew up playing the alphabet game when traveling in the car. That was long ago before we had movies and games on phones. Work your way through the alphabet, in order, looking for things that match the letter. Examples: A=Automobile, B=Bridges, C=Cadillac, D=Donkey, E=End of the irrigation pivot, etc. When you get to Z offer a prayer of thanksgiving for the diversity of things you found and for the diversity, we experience every day in our own lives. 
• Have a prayer list in the car noting people, places, and things which you might name in your prayers at the end of the day. A spiral notebook will let you look back at your list. A small dry erase board in the car which you wipe clean each morning serves as a remind of the fact each new day our slate is wiped clean and we have the opportunity to engage as disciples in new and exciting ways. 
• A walking prayer is fun when you are exploring an area on foot. You will need to have a coin. When you come to an intersection, flip the coin. Heads = right. Tails = left. Before you start head own a new path, head in a new direction, name signs of God at work. Warning: If you are on who easily gets lost you might want to make a map, use an app to track your route or record your turns. 

Share your prayer stories at office@nebraskasynod.org