The younger ex-teen got this book, A Praying Life by Paul E. Miller (NavPress, 2009).
My first comment: Wow!
Chapter 1 is titled “What good does it do?”—something we've asked in
the quiet (or noise) of our hearts, but the author recounts a time when he said to his then-teenager,
“Let’s pray” (about a missing contact lens). In response she
… burst into tears. “What
good does it do? I’ve prayed for Kim to speak, and she isn’t speaking”
Kim struggles with autism and developmental delay. …[S]he is also mute.
page 15
Indeed. What good does prayer do? Doesn't God already know what we need
before we ask?
The author does address that question, and many others. I'll tell you about
this other part from chapter 4, “Learn to talk to your father”—related
to Matthew 7:11 If you, then, though you
are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much
more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask
him!
Kim got her first speech computer when she was five years old.
… We explained the keys to her and waited. She leaned over and pressed the
key with little McDonald’s golden arches on it. It was two o’clock in the
afternoon, and we’d just eaten lunch. We dropped everything, leapt into
the car with Kim raced off to McDonald’s, and got Kim a hamburger and a soda.
We were thrilled.
page 58
What a lovely picture of our heavenly father's delight in giving good
gifts to his children!
Another thing that's impressed me so far: when Jesus says
we need to become like little children, we also need to pray like
little children. Quiz: How do little children ask for things?
Well, messy might be a good word. They ask distractedly,
repeatedly, annoyingly; they ask with abandon, without pretense or consideration.
I used to hang around with a guy who said his
default method of praying involved listing a dozen or two things
he wanted from God. And he talked about that as though it were a bad thing.
But really, if that's on our minds, that's what we should talk about.
I'll chew on that one for a while.
