A friend of mine is completing a project for a degree in spiritual formation. She asked her many friends to respond to a series of questions about how they learned to pray. One of those questions was, “who taught you to pray?” That question stirred a lot of memories and took me back to my childhood. I really don’t remember a time when prayer was not a part of our lives. At a minimum we always prayed and gave thanks at meal time. Sometimes meal time prayers were expanded to include reading a passage of Scripture or thoughts from a devotional book.
We were taught prayers that we memorized – “God is great; God is good; and we thank Him for this food.” “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep.” I don’t remember being “taught” these prayers but I remember praying them at meal time and bed time.
I wasn’t very old when I first decided I wanted Jesus in my life. It was just after that decision that my mother began to talk with me about forming my own prayers rather than simply repeating those I had memorized. She quizzed me about things I was concerned about and told me to simply tell Jesus about them. She reminded me to thank Him and praise him but also told me I could bring anything to Him I wanted.
Her instructions began a journey of discovery about prayer and about God that has continued through the years. I’m thankful for a mother who thought it was important that her children learn to pray. I am also thankful for a mother who prayed – who prayed for her children all through their childhood, college, and marriage – who prayed until cancer took her life and the Lord received her into His presence.
