Lord, beer me strength.

I have been trying lately to focus on improving my prayer life. I am not a consistent pray-er. I am that person who tries to squeeze in a quick prayer before I go to sleep each night, but I never manage to stay awake long enough to finish the prayer. Someone once said to me, "What better way to fall asleep than while talking to God?" I don't know how I feel about that, though; it sounds like a nice idea, but in the end I'm not really accomplishing anything.
I've been teaching my Sunday school class this month, and we're watching a video series about the prayers of Jesus and what we can learn from his example. Basically, we should pray persistently and with a purpose; we should seek an intimate relationship with God and make an effort to communicate with him through consistent prayer; and we shouldn't hesitate to pray whenever we need to. Sounds easy... but there's so much about prayer that I just don't do. I don't pray persistently. Maybe it's the ADD in me that keeps me from focusing on something for too long. And I don't remember to turn to God to help me out in daily situations. I love watching The Office, and one of my favorite episodes is the one where Andy uses the phrase "beer me..." to ask for things (as in "beer me that stapler.") Finally, Jim looks into the camera and says, "Lord, beer me strength." That's about the extent of my daily prayers. I have actually caught myself muttering those exact words: Lord, beer me strength. I don't think that's what Jesus had in mind when he encouraged his disciples to pray.
There's so much I want to improve about my prayer habits that I hardly know where to begin. Okay, well that's not true; I did choose a starting point. I struggle with sharing my prayer requests with others. I don't know why. I guess I have this fear of becoming that person who, when asked for prayer requests, answers with "my friend's uncle's coworker's nephew's girlfriend's mom..." And why is that a problem? Yes it's random, but it's still someone's prayer request-- it's important! I am blessed to have friends who will take up my causes and pray for them. I have started reaching out and asking for prayers, and it brings peace of mind knowing that someone else is out there praying with me.