Prayer - Public or Private -

I was asked to pray today at a Habitat for Humanity event. I don't like praying in public! And I said yes.

Prayer is extremely personal and intimate. I pray with Scott; I pray a blessing on the food we eat (when at home), I "amen" other's prayers, and I spend much of my days carrying a prayer in my heart, but to pray where I will be heard is almost an invasion of my space - putting myself "out there" to others - the words of my heart are now the words of the people. So - do I share the words of my heart and be true and vulnerable, or do I say what I think the "other" wants to hear, and keep my prayers in my heart?

Is the prayer for God, for myself, or for the people who have gathered for the event? And since I don't like drawing attention to myself, could my prayer be strong enough, subtle enough, powerful enough, gentle enough to be the focus? (I mean - I even worried about what to wear, just to make sure the attention wasn't on me, and then I worried what to pray, so the attention wasn't on me!)

Quite the conundrum.

So, I wrote my prayer down, memorized it, and I prayed -

Our gracious God, We are grateful for the opportunity to meet together to support Habitat for Humanity. We are thankful for what they do in our communities and for the opportunities they give us to serve.
As we begin our time together, we pray for a blessing on this food and a blessing on the hands of those who prepared it, from garden to table.
Please be with our presenters and with us, that our minds and hearts might be open to their messages, and that we can use these messages to better ourselves and those we serve.
For these things we pray - Amen.

And then I stepped down off the stage, walked back to my seat, and ate my breakfast. Scott said I did well, but I still felt awkward, almost exposed.