This is a prayer request.

A prayer request for any husband who tonight, upon his return work, asks his SAHM wife what she did all day.

This is a prayer request.

A prayer request for any wife who tonight, upon her husband’s return from work, forget to hide the eight Amazon packages that were delivered earlier today.

This is a prayer request.

This is a prayer request for the new father who is not “babysitting,” but fathering his child while his wife is gone and whose child just had their first diaper explosion.

This is a prayer request.

This is a prayer request for the new mom who just walked into Target for her first solo post-baby outing and began crying over the sight of the in-store Starbucks which reminded her she’s still limiting (or avoiding) caffeine.

This is a prayer request.

This is a prayer request for the man who was just cut off in traffic and the one who did the cutting; that their middle fingers can revert to their original position sooner rather than later.

This is a prayer request.

This is a prayer request for the woman who just ran out of dry shampoo and mascara. I legit can’t even fathom how I would feel.

This is a prayer request.

This is a prayer request for the husband whose wife and mother of his children is hangry, but also on a “diet.”

This is a prayer request.

This is a prayer request for the toddler mother who still can’t fit into her pre-pregnancy jeans and for the child’s father who suggested she try them on.

This is a prayer request.

This is a prayer request for men who work at Mister Car Wash and are tasked with cleaning out my putrid, crumb-filled, stinky mom-mobile minivan.

This is a prayer request.

This is a prayer request for my children’s teachers who see my helicopter flying too close for comfort on a far too regular basis.

This is a prayer request.

This is a prayer request for the mom friend who got my child all excited about a soccer team that only practices at 8am every freakin’ Saturday morning.

This is a prayer request.

This is a prayer request for the high-school kid working the drive-thru who just botched my order and didn’t give me my toddler’s one request resulting in a completely overdramatic epic meltdown by my toddler and then me.

This is a prayer request.

This is a prayer request for the waiter who poured my dinner wine at the restaurant; may you be blessed for your intuitiveness and generosity.

And finally…

This is a prayer request.

This is a prayer request for all individuals that are truly struggling — the old, young, or in between, physically or mentally ill, sick, poor, broken, confused, disoriented, addicted, hurt, and hopeless — no matter your race, ethnicity, gender, sexual preference, or political allegiance.

This is a prayer request for you, and perhaps the rest of us should keep a bit more perspective on the daily.

Maybe us moderately happy, basically healthy, kind of balanced, coherent, sober, hopeful individuals can aim to use humor a bit more in how we cope and save the prayer requests for those that need them.

Am I saying the average typically joyful but stressed adult can’t or shouldn’t make requests of God?

No way.

Absolutely not.

And, I’m making that so clear hear by telling you the same thing twice in two different ways and two times — no way and absolutely not.

BUT, what I am saying is that maybe, just maybe, we (I include myself) can make less unnecessary noise so that God can clearly hear the voices of the needy which very often are the ones that are hardest to hear and understand even without our less dire slightly ungrateful chatter.

Now, for any of you who plan to crucify me for mocking prayer requests, know that I wholeheartedly believe in God and prayers, but I am also a humorist and think it would be incredibly rude of me not to exercise a trait and talent God so graciously bestowed upon me, his chosen one.

You see, I’m an encourager of using humor (and sarcasm) often and in most situations.

To read more about my take on embracing humor, check out my Today Parenting Team article, Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli.

The takeaway from that piece was that the world needs two kinds of people:

1) people who are loud, assertive, blunt, and persistent

and

2) the quieter, more prudent ones who use levity to disengage slightly.

Disengaged, who wants to be that? Surely not someone in need of prayer request, right?

Well, to pull from the article’s message and tweak it slightly, sometimes “you have to disengage to engage more effectively." This can and does apply to our often inaccurate perceptions of how “bad” and challenging our lives are, how “stressed” we are and how crucial it is that God answers our prayer requests, right this moment.

Perhaps, though, if we were to disengage a bit from whatever (or whoever) in our environment has got us all riled up and step away from the complicated self-built emotional and sometimes ungrateful web we ourselves often weave, we may find a renewed and more accurate outlook on what in our life is truly worthy of a prayer request.

And, perhaps then, we will have a newfound awareness of and appreciation for all the ways in which we are truly blessed.