{"id":3735,"date":"2015-01-23T08:57:27","date_gmt":"2015-01-23T08:57:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=3735"},"modified":"2015-01-26T04:21:17","modified_gmt":"2015-01-26T04:21:17","slug":"the-impact-of-some-parents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/the-impact-of-some-parents\/","title":{"rendered":"The impact of some parents!"},"content":{"rendered":"

My father and mother are both remarkable people! Thinking about them regularly, reminds me to pray with and for them. They have done amazing things for me and my siblings, but they have also lived through situations I can\u2019t even begin to fully describe here. Yet their joy and expression of hope is infectious. My dad is a brilliant man and loves to laugh, my mother is a brilliant woman who loves to sing and dance. I have had it said that there is nothing like a praying mother and rightful so. I would also add that there is nothing like prayer motivated parents. My parents were not always grounded in the Christian faith, but when they individually experienced encounters with Ruhanga <\/em>(God in my mother tongue); my parents\u2019 \u2018saltiness of the earth\u2019 went to even greater levels of a preserving love in our family, towards our relatives and friends.<\/p>\n

Through my parents\u2019 love, I learned to imagine how powerful Ruhanga<\/em>\u2019s love might be. I would then find out that the avenue of inquiry about the Creator\u2019s love for human beings was through prayer. Common phrases I repeatedly heard from my parents where, \u201cRuhanga<\/em> will help us\u201d from my father and \u201clet us ask Ruhanga<\/em> for Ruhanga<\/em> is the one who gives mercy\u201d from my mother. They believe in Ruhanga<\/em> who answers prayer. I know that my folks would agree with Morse who writes:<\/p>\n

Through prayer, we experience forgiveness, guidance and peace. We are healed physically and emotional. We experience the mystery of God, see truth and receive spiritual gifts. We receive vision and courage for God\u2019s mission. Faith becomes more beautiful, more real.[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

Prayer is one of the many lifelines to human life. I believe that prayer is as importance in daily life as breathing. Prayer is God\u2019s idea. The understanding of prayer can be challenging if only understood from a conscious level. It is such a powerful idea that requires radical simplicity. Indeed Morse is right, when we pray, \u201cwe experience the mystery of God\u2026\u201d There are many things I love about the idea of prayer. At the top of my list of God\u2019s prayer principles is the scripture that asserts; \u201cthis is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.\u201d[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

It is important to seek God\u2019s will since praying according to God\u2019s will guides one\u2019s motives in prayer. Dwelling in God\u2019s will, keeps followers of Christ joyful and prayerful with all kinds of prayer. Even in times of weakness and struggle the scriptures note: \u201cin the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.\u201d[3]<\/a><\/p>\n

What a powerful gift the idea of prayer is to humanity! I learned from my parents to value prayer and they showed me that desiring to pray is also praying. It’s in keeping with that tradition, that I continue to desire and ask Ruhanga <\/em>to teach me how to pray a fresh as long as I have breath.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> MaryKate Morse, \u201cA Guidebook to Prayer: Twenty-four ways to walk with God,\u201d Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, 2013, p. 14<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> 1 John 5:14<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Romans 8:26<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My father and mother are both remarkable people! Thinking about them regularly, reminds me to pray with and for them. They have done amazing things for me and my siblings, but they have also lived through situations I can\u2019t even begin to fully describe here. Yet their joy and expression of hope is infectious. My […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[8],"class_list":["post-3735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-morse","cohort-lgp4"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3735"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3735\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3768,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3735\/revisions\/3768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}