My Mother Taught Me To Pray

Sorely convicted (not condemned!) by this quote from John Piper’s Raising Children Who Hope in the Triumph of God:

“One of the earliest things I remember is [my mother] taking me into a dimly lighted closet every Saturday afternoon after the day’s work was done and kneeling with me beside a chest while she taught me how to pray. I remember her suggesting to me the thoughts and, when I could not command the words, her putting into my mouth the very words, of prayer.

I shall never forget how, one day, as I had succeeded in uttering some poor words of my own, I was surprised by drops falling upon my face. They were my mother’s tears. My mother’s teaching me how to pray has given me ever since my best illustration of the Holy Spirit’s influence in prayer. When we know not what to pray for as we ought, he, with more than a mother’s skill and sympathy, helps our infirmities and makes intercession within us while Christ makes intercession for us before the throne.”(Augustus Strong, who was a Baptist seminary president at the end of the nineteenth century and who wrote a systematic theology, from his autobiography, p.80)

 I wonder:

Will my daughters ever one day say, “My mother taught me to pray.”

Worth strong consideration, don’t you think?