Come As You Are

A good attitude toward prayer is to come as you are to your God.  My God does not need me in special clothes, or dragging all my worthy good deeds to impress.  No.  I can come as a mess if that is the way I am at the moment.  Just come.  Then, instead of simply asking God to clear up the mess, do all the heavy lifting, while I remain helpless and forlorn, I ask God to give me the strength, some call it grace, to be rid of the character defects, faults, and bad habits, that made my mess in the first place. I try not to blame others for the mess.  They may have a part in it, but prayer is about changing me, not other people.  Finally, I try to just sit, be, and listen in silence for a few minutes.  The results of prayer of this type is that, though I came as I am, I did not leave as I came.