Funny — but I’m not sure I like the idea that we should be “Pavlov’s dogs” for G-d.
Free will is a curse, but it is also a blessing when used for good, too.

Kneeling, “OK, so 2000 years ago you let them nail you to a cross to atone for my sins but I don’t see any recent splinters and- whoa, did you just hear my stomach growl?” Fervent crossing.

That is PERFECT imagery. My dog is a master of anticipation. She’s never discouraged, she doesn’t think that my failure to drop a piece of roast beef last night after dinner has any bearing on the likelihood of my dropping a piece of baked ham tonight. Each day is filled with new possibilities and all she has to do is be there to receive them.
Thanks for the new prayer attitude

Trish – Ummm, kind of wondering here if I showed up at your place would I get roast beef one night and baked ham tonight? Kind of thinking the Kuo family might be moving in with the Ryan family! hee hawww… corn bread with the ham?

“I just gave her a poached egg and then it dawned on me that I need to pray like Sam begs for food – constantly, expectantly, and with big eyes.”
Whether it is praying or simply looking to the world with expectation, we all need to emulate Sam’s approach. Thanks for sharing, and pass a hug on to Sam from me.
(Yes…I’m a sucker for dogs, what can I say.)

I’m a sucker for dogs, too. My social networking name on Beliefnet is “doxieman” for my dachshund.
But I still think there’s a big difference between dog-begging and human prayers.

Larry said it – there is a big difference between dog begging and human prayer. God knows what we need before we ask for it. The purpose of prayer should not be to try to influence God or change His mind, but rather to listen to what He is trying to say to us and thereby change our minds.

absolutely, we must pray as sam…

Found your blog from Trish’s posting. I’m agreeing with the analogy, thinking you didn’t answer your dog’s prayers every day because it wouldn’t be good for her. But I’m wishing Sam had gotten more than a poached egg after waiting so long. This may explain why I have two Black Labs on a diet…
I’m going to stick around, check out some of your other postings. I promise not to comment on each one.

“We have gone long stretches of time – months – without giving her anything. Still, she will follow and sit and look up at us with her big, big brown eyes and make us feel guilty about not giving her food. She doesn’t whine. She doesn’t bark. She just sits and looks.
I just gave her a poached egg and then it dawned on me that I need to pray like Sam begs for food – constantly, expectantly, and with big eyes.”
In behavioral psychology, we call what you do to your dog “intermittent reinforcement”.
Animals who are NEVER rewarded for a behavior quickly cease performing a behavior and after a few unsuccessful attempts to gain a reward, find something else to do with their time. Animals that are rewarded every time they perform a behavior perform that behavior a whole lot, but will quit doing it if the reward is permanently removed. However, if you want an animal to perform a behavior over the longest period of time, you only reward it occasionally, unpredictably, stretching out the spaces between rewards until you rarely or never give them a reward for the behavior. By that time, the behavior may become either so intrinsically rewarding or so ingrained, that the animal may continue to do it forever, habitually.
So, assuming prayer has all the possible award scenarios above, and their outcomes, what does that say about what our expectations should be when we do it? If we pray to get something, and don’t, what does that do to our subsequent use of prayer? If what we expect to get is something intrinsically rewarding- a sense of peace, or direction-won’t that be the most rewarding use of prayer?