Prayer: childlike or childish?

Henri Nouwen has hit the nail on the head once again! He likens our "childish" prayers to asking for a present from Santa Claus, and getting it and running away.

"All the attention is on the gift and none of the one who gives it... your spiritual life is reduced to a beeline toward what you want."

Ouch! Too true to be comfortable! So often my prayer life waxes and wanes with my feelings of being looked after, being tired, being secure, needing security. So often it reflects what *I* want and how *I* feel, and is dependent on my prayers being answered.

I have just finished a book in which a girl prays for twenty years to be rescued - and she finally is. Suddenly, her relationship with God falters - now she has what she needs, she needs a new way to relate to God. I wonder if this is why my prayers falter sometimes - I have everything I need, so I don't see God as "necessary" to work in my life. More than a grain of truth in that.