A Young Woman's Call to Prayer by Elizabeth George

This is the book the girls in my Sunday School class have chosen for their next study. They arrived last Sunday and I can never leave a new book alone, so I brought a copy home to preview. This will be the fourth book we travel through together...and the one that, by far, intimidates me the most.

Early in the book Elizabeth (I know it is proper form to refer to authors by their last name, but by the time you finish a devotional you typically feel as though you know the author on a more personal level, and it just seems awkward.) includes the quote, "He who has learned how to pray has learned the greatest secret of a holy and happy life." As a teacher professionally, I always feel as if I need to "be the expert" in my content before presenting it to my students (not that I always, if ever, succeed). How intimidating is it to think I have to explain this "secret" of a life of holiness and happiness?

I was able to find reassurance in the statement that "no one prays enough...no one prays as passionately as she would like to pray or should pray...no one prays for as many people as need to be prayed for." So, maybe, I am not alone in my feelings of inadequacy when it comes to prayer...and, maybe, like one of my students said this week, in the act of education sometimes the students can teach the teacher.

I do know I can't wait to get started because I happen to have the most amazing class of girls. I know we will all leave this study purposing to answer God's call to us to pray, purposing to to hide away with Him in prayer, and with changed lives.