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The Help of Prayer

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 16, 1915

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 92, No. 46.

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The Help of Prayer

By MARTHA E. WARNER

Front Porch Visits — No. 3

The Help of Prayer

MARTHA E. WARNER
“I’ve come today,” said Mrs. Bowen, “to have you tell me how Melvin came to ask you to pray for him. I can’t understand it. Was he a goody-goody boy?”
“No, indeed,” I replied; “he was just a normal child. You see, we had prayers every morning. The children were taught to ask for strength to gain the victory over the temptations they would meet through the day. Then at the evening quiet hour we would talk over the victories gained and lost, and have a few short prayers.
“Melvin was a human bromoseltzer: at the slightest occasion he would effervesce. But he did try hard to overcome his temper. In talking with me one day he said, ‘Mamma, I pray, and try hard, but the next thing I know, over I go.’
“‘Well,’ I replied, ‘the next time you feel your temper is going to get the best of you, just shut your mouth tightly, and run to mother, and we will both pray.’ Many a time he has come to me, saying, ‘Hold me tight, mamma.’ And I would put my arms around him tightly, and silently pray, until his body would relax, and he would say, ‘It’s all right now, mother,’ and run away to play. Prayer is a part of our life.”
“I believe in prayer,” remarked Mrs. Bowen, “if one is in great trouble; but some way I never think of praying about little things. Did the children ever pray for anything they really wanted, and get it?”
“Yes, often. I remember Laurence lost his knife, which was the dearest of all his treasures. When asked to explain why he did not hunt for it, he said, ‘Why, I’ve told the Lord all about it, and he will find it for me.’
“At our quiet hour that night he said, ‘Mamma, I’ve prayed and prayed to find that knife, but I don’t find it. What is the trouble? Why doesn’t the Lord find it?’
“‘Well, Laurence,’ I replied, ‘it is like this: This noon I was very, very tired. Suppose I had prayed, ‘Lord, please get the dinner today,’ and then had just rested till father and you boys came for dinner. You know God has promised that all things that we ask in prayer, believing, we shall receive. Dinner is one of the all things. Now tell me just what would you have had for dinner?’
“‘Nothing,’ the children answered in chorus. Then Laurence remarked: ‘I see; when you pray, you must say, “Help me do this or that,” and then pitch right in and do your part, and the Lord will do his.’
“‘Exactly,’ I answered. ‘Ask the Lord to help you remember where you had your knife, to make your eyes bright to see it, then hunt and hunt, and the knife will be found.’”
“‘That’s just what I will do the very first thing in the morning, after my work is done,’ said Laurence. And sure enough, when morning came, the children hadn’t been out of doors ten minutes before I heard a shout, and they came running to the house, crying, ‘The knife is found! The knife is found!’
“You see, I pray over everything. I don’t remember ever even putting a cake into the oven, without asking the Lord to take charge of the baking. It is the same about all my work. If I go to ride, I ask the Lord to go with me. Even when an automobile hit our wagon, I said, ‘Lord, take care of us,’ and no damage was done.”
“I know,” said Mrs. Bowen, rising to go, “it is like a miracle. I wonder if things in my home would go smoother if I prayed more.”
Clintonville, Conn.