How shall we pray?

People will often ask how to begin a time of prayer. This is an interesting question with a seemingly easy answer.

Prayer is merely conversation. All the same things that apply to any conversation apply to prayer. The difference is that this conversation takes place between a human and God. But this is really the only difference.

Think of children waiting for Daddy to come home. The car enters the garage, the kitchen door opens, and the children run to greet the father who has just returned from a busy day at work.

"Daddy, Daddy! Guess what I found on the playground?!" "Daddy, look what I drew in school!" "Daddy, see this trick?" "Daddy, Joey got a new puppy - wanna go see it?"

Children don't stop to consider the importance of their news compared to the concerns of the father's career. They simply want to share everything with him. And that Daddy delights in every word. He wants to hear about their day.

Sometimes the child approaches the father a little differently... perhaps with "um, Dad, can I talk to you?" or "can I ask you something?" which precipitates a serious discussion. That father wants to hear these things too – to be approachable.

So it is with our Heavenly Father - He wants to hear all about our day and our concerns, whether it is something that excites and pleases us or something that hurts or burdens us.

Thus, we simply start by talking, just as we do with others with whom we have conversation every day.

prayers for children

Two very brave and wonderful people I know are making a pilgrimage - a mission trip - to Tanzania. As I write this Karen and Jim are in Mbeya, being hosted by Father Robert Mbinda and his wife Mariam. The Mbindas oversee the Good Samaritan Orphanage.

The children at the orphanage have lost their parents to AIDS - it is epidemic there. There is often a shortage of medical assistance, and in an emergency there is no 9-1-1.

As we sit in neat clean houses and eat healthy food (I hope you are eating healthfully) washed down with clean water, these little ones are carrying water great distances which is not as pure as it could be and their meals are often the same each day and are meager.

Children in the United States and other "developed" countries are suffering from the opposite problem: they are over-fed and under-active. While the Tanzanian children schlep water great distances and gather sticks for fires, the children in the U.S. are munching high-calorie snacks while sitting for hours in front of a tv or computer. They will have shortened life spans not because of AIDSand diseases from unclean water but from diseases borne of obesity: heart disease and diabetes.

Please pray for our children - the children of Tanzania and the children of the United States... pray for their health and their futures. And then pray for inspiration for ways that you can help them all.