Some pictures remain indelibly embedded in our mind.
When I was a young teenager I saw a reprint of Norman Rockwell’s 1951 painting “Saying Grace” in the now defunct Asia Magazine. It pictured a solemn lady saying grace with her young boy in a busy cafeteria. Across the table, two toughies were eyeballing them and so were a few men at the fringe of the picture. The lady and the boy’s action seemed so out of place.
My first impression was that it seemed right and it spoke of courage.
As I look at this picture again, it speaks to me of the woman’s heart desire to teach the young lad to remember and to be thankful and unashamed of the Lord in this hostile world. She wanted to instil in him a sense of priority and purpose. With reverence they prayed on despite the din and the unwelcomed stares.
Is prayer out of place in our lives?
Are you too busy to give proper thanks to the Lord?
How are you impacting and imparting your Christian values to your children?
Much has been said about prayer – its importance and priority in our lives. How can we measure the health of our prayer lives? As an outward expression, I think one tangible aspect is our corporate prayer life. We gather to praise and give thanks to God, to seek His help and to intercede for others (Core Value 7: Prov 3:5-7; Lam 3:22-26; Matt 7:7-12; Col 4:2).
However, our corporate prayer time is not well attended. If corporate prayer is reflective of the priority we give to prayer, then perhaps we are also not placing enough priority on prayer in our private lives.
In the picture, I would think the woman’s resoluteness in Saying Grace comes from a habit of remembering the Lord and spending time with Him.
Let’s make time for our corporate prayers. Let’s encourage one another. Out of our persistence, a prayerful habit (heart) will form.
Let’s not give what is leftover of our time to prayer. It must not be our last priority.
Prayer is a privilege. Privilege must be exercised to be beneficial, and one of the benefits is that it leads to intimacy with God.
By Shi Pau Soon, Elder (YCKC Bulletin 20&21 July 2013)