May 17

Caught in Prayer

… teach us to pray … keep on asking … keep on looking … keep on knocking … For everyone who asks, receives … Everyone who seeks, finds. And the door is opened to everyone who knocks.

Luke 11:1b, 9-10 (NLT)


When I was a boy, I was taught to pray. A prayer at mealtime, a prayer at bedtime—these were the routines of the early years—easy, memorized petitions. These prayers were foundational, and for that reason, important, but I have to agree with those who say the richest lessons are caught, not taught.

For me, my greatest lessons on prayer came when I was a teenager. Coming home from school in the middle of the afternoon, more often than not, I would climb the stairs, look down the hallway and see my mother on her knees, beside her bed, laboring in deep prayer. I wouldn’t think much of it, other than to move more quietly to my room, but I know it had an impact on me.

The unspoken messages were clear and simple: pray often, pray quietly, just pray. Now I am a middle-aged man and I pray too—so many times for friends and family—and God is opening my eyes.

Last night I came home and there was my teenage son … on his knees … beside his bed … praying.


Father, touch our lives, touch others’ lives, through prayer. Amen.