I used to always struggle with praying in front of people. Truthfully, I still do. I pray in front of the congregation at church, I pray in front of my family, I pray on the mike at the prayer room, my son makes me pray on the mike at all of his sets that I am able to attend, with hand signals from the stage. I do it. AND I still struggle. The struggle is still very real to me every single time. Not that I have any trouble at all talking with God, we talk constantly throughout the day. We talk more than my wife and I talk, and she can talk. My struggle comes from Matthew 6 verse 5 “And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men.” That word, hypocrite has always been an issue for me. I hate even the thought of being seen as a hypocrite. With my kids I never want them to say that their dad was a do as I say, not as I do dad, or the guy that lived one way in public and another way in private. I have seen much of that in the church world in my childhood and growing up. Is my prayer life hypocritical?
Last week an embarrassing thing happened to me. I was enjoying mowing my yard, enjoying my new zero turn mower. It was extra windy and we were expecting storms the next day so I really wanted to get the grass mowed before we had a bunch of rain that would delay me getting to mow and maybe cause a big green up growth on the yard that would make my mowing longer next time. Liela and the kids came out and were pruning trees and cleaning up the landscaping for planting flowers. As is my custom when I am mowing, 
I pray, well sometimes I sing too. When I pray I pray out-loud. So here I am running back and forth across the yard, enjoying my mower and enjoying a good conversation with my Father. Liela and the kids were heading back in the house and the kids start hand signaling me. I am admittedly a little dense because I had no idea what they were signaling so I zipped right on over on my handy new zero turn mower. It is there, much to my fear and embarrassment I am informed of what the hand signals mean… “Daddy we can hear you praying”. I immediately go into panic mode, what was I praying, did I sound like a dork (probably as I am not real polished in the secret place of my mower), did they hear me praying over them? Ugh. Right? I mean who wants someone walking into their secret place and listening in on the private heart cries between them and God? My lovely bride quickly quells the angst in my heart with one simple sentence “Honey, its a great teachable moment, I have been talking to them while you were praying, about the relationship with the Father expressed through our prayers whenever and wherever we want to talk to Him”. Thanks dear for putting that into perspective, right?
In my devotional reading, I read through my terror verse again in the Message Bible.
“And when you come before God, don’t turn that into a theatrical production either. All these people making a regular show out of their prayers, hoping for stardom! Do you think God sits in a box seat? 6 “Here’s what I want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won’t be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace.”
My mind went back to my mower experience earlier that week and I realized this is the secret to the secret place, there is no role play, there is no watching, there is no one to impress or to judge how well you prayed (cause no one really would do that, right?) The comfort of conversation comes in the secret place, the awkwardness goes away. Out of that all our prayer, public or private now becomes unashamed, nontheatrical, without role play, whether in your prayer closet, on the mike in the prayer room or in front of the Sunday morning congregation. The Secret place creates comfort in the conversation so the conversation can be anywhere.
I love the stuff Holy Spirit teaches me through my kids.
Oh and your secret place can be on a mower too, or anywhere else, it doesn’t even have to be “a” secret at all.