Learning How to Pray
“You need to learn how to pray!” This was our language helper’s surprising but welcome comment a few weeks ago as we began our daily lesson. From the beginning, we had started off each meeting with prayer, mainly because we have felt so desperately our need for divine help in learning this challenging language! 
Our prayer times have broadened to include the needs of her family members and ours, and thanksgiving for blessings received. At first it was just my husband and I taking turns, praying in English, but after a while we invited Minou to take a turn from time to time. I started writing down the prayer phrases she used in our vocabulary notebook.
We pray in a way that is similar to what Minou is used to—she and I cover our heads and extend our hands out. But having been raised in a Muslim environment, Minou was used to memorized prayers from the Koran, recited in Arabic, a language she doesn’t speak. Since becoming our language helper, she has become comfortable expressing herself to God in her native language, like we do. But not exactly like we do…Some of the phrases she uses translate into English like this:
“Keep us walking on the straight path.”
“Keep Satan away from us.”
“Turn your gaze toward us.”
For several weeks we wrote down her phrases and talked about them afterwards. Then Minou announced that it was time for us to start using them ourselves. When I asked her if she thought our language was good enough for God to understand, she said, “Of course! God understands what comes from our hearts.” In the context of our language lessons, she has learned something wonderful about God that most Muslims don’t yet know.
Posted in Uncategorized and tagged prayer by Lisa