This Lent, writer Cristina Turlacu reflects on the quiet power of daily prayer and how it can gently transform your day-to-day life. Through her personal journey of motherhood, she invites you to be encouraged to pray and discover how even the simplest words whispered in faith can bring strength, peace, and lasting change.
I have to admit: I have days when I don’t pray. In the busyness of everything, working, focusing on family priorities, traveling, cooking, and raising a child, I forget to pray. It has happened more than once, but there was a time I actually prayed every single day. I was on maternity leave and I started praying somewhere at the beginning of my journey of having a newborn.
What prayer did I say? I had two prayers that simply came to me, even when I was exhausted. The first one, ‘Your Father’, I was telling the prayer most of the time to my daughter making me think of God as her father.
My daughter was born at the end of 2021 and I started praying every day when she was about 4 months old
My daughter was born at the end of 2021 and I started praying every day when she was about 4 months old (April/May 2022) I know this as I keep a monthly diary for her. I used to say it while whispering it to my baby, and holding her tightly in my arms. There were moments when I had fallen asleep with the words on my lips. But I did it, I prayed. The other one, is one of my favourite prayers that I learned from my therapist many years ago. It’s the prayer of the heart. “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”
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This prayer stayed with me through difficult and happy times. When I said it I said it for myself and for my baby. At bedtime, or what is called the baby witching hour, I said this in silence, sometimes just once, sometimes repeatedly until she’d fallen asleep.
I prayed to overcome the loneliness and the difficulties of raising a newborn.
I prayed to overcome the loneliness and the difficulties of raising a newborn. I prayed to keep myself anchored into the truth that I am not lonely because God is always with me. I prayed for my baby: for her health, for her turning into a child of God. At that time, I didn’t think of the effect my prayers would have. Only later on I realised the impact praying every day had on me, but mostly on my child.
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Confident in her faith - When I started going regularly to a church with my daughter, she already had a sense of God. She was already a friend of Jesus. Seeing her crossing her hands in prayer, without me teaching her to do so, was the result of me doing the same gestures in front of my daughter, for so many days, every evening.
Asking questions - As a toddler, my daughter started asking me some difficult questions, which gave me food for thought. Does God love thieves too? Is God a boy or a girl? Why is God in the sky? This was (and still is) her thinking, not me trying to start a conversation about Jesus. I sometimes think she is too young to understand things, but she proves me differently. She already knows Jesus and speaks about Him.
My reminder to go to church - When the weekend approaches and we haven’t been to our church in a while, my child is my reminder to go to the church. With her soft voice, she always says: ’Mummy, when are we going to go to church?’ She has this internal compass (most likely led by her faith) that reminds her to go to the place where we find both Jesus and friends.
She believes - I know I don’t have to question this: she is a believer. There’s something in her way of being that makes me have no doubt about her simple faith.
Stayed healthy - I believe my prayers help my daughter stay healthy. Apart from the normal fever and the usual teething period, when I prayed every day, my daughter remained healthy. Not only that, but she was happy. She has a simple happiness that brought calmness into our home. Most likely her guardian angel was there and made sure not only her, but the family was healthy as well.
It helped me - I remember how I overcame what I think was postpartum depression, just by asking Jesus to watch over me. It helped me do the difficult things: going to the GP and seeing my baby cry, but also praying daily helped me connect and enjoy every day of my motherhood journey.
No matter where you are in your faith journey, you can always start with prayer. It can restore, encourage and lift you up in unimagined ways.
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