God isn’t impressed by fancy prayer vocabulary. He was fine with a tax collector who could barely look up.

Worrying about the vocabulary is a sign you think you are being assessed on delivery. The man in the story managed almost nothing: a few words, eyes on the floor, no polish at all, and that was the prayer held up as the real one. Fluency is a performance skill. It has never been the entry requirement for honesty.

Say it this week in the words you would use with a friend, including the unimpressive ones. If all you have is one sentence or a single name, that is a whole prayer and not a rough draft.