• Me/Me Questions: It sounds like I’m asking YOU a question, but the question really just helps the conversation be more about ME.
• Me/You Questions: The questions helps both YOU & ME learn more about each other.
• You/You Questions: These questions are purely selfless – they are the “all about YOU,” no ME agenda questions.

I can totally see that there is a time and a place for each of those kinds of questions. If I’m being interviewed for a job, I might use one or two Me/Me questions. If I’m having a super casual conversation with a new friend/acquaintance, there might be a few more Me/You’s. The You/You’s are pretty popular when a friend is having a horrible, terrible, no good, very bad day and wants to move to Australia.

But it wasn’t until this week that I started to think about those ideas in connection to prayer. What kind of prayer conversation am I having with God?

I get so overwhelmed by the business of life that I can’t remember the last time I’ve ever prayed a You/You prayer to God. I do a lot of me/me’s and a few me/you’s but those you/you’s I could probably count on one hand. The you/you’s I do remember came out at quiet, unexpected moments in life:

• In the summer, when you wake up before the rest of your family and step outside as the sun is rising. It seriously feels like God stops time with the morning dew. Be still and know that I am God. (Psalm 46:10a)
• Spending time alone on the wooded walking trail at a county park. Everything you see is created by God, not man, and points to God in subtle, rich, beautiful ways. For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities–his eternal power and divine nature. (Romans 1:20)
• The Christmas Eve church service that ends with everyone singing Silent Night together acappella with candles. I don’t know how you make it through that without crying!!! And he will be called Immanuel (meaning, “God is with us”). (Matthew 1:23b)