{"id":122,"date":"2009-08-31T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-08-31T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/prayerplainandsimple\/2009\/08\/learning-to-pray-from-experts-children.html"},"modified":"2009-08-31T05:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-08-31T05:00:00","slug":"learning-to-pray-from-experts-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2009\/08\/learning-to-pray-from-experts-children.html","title":{"rendered":"Learning from Expert Prayer Coaches &#8211; Children"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><font size=\"3\"><font color=\"#000000\"><font face=\"Times New Roman\">Children are not instinctively religious.<span>&nbsp;<\/span>Once when a preacher&#8217;s sermon dragged on beyond supposed 12:00 noon scheduled close one little girl leaned over to her mother and whispered, &#8220;Mommy, if we give him the money now, will he let us go?&#8221;<span>&nbsp; <\/span>Irreverent, perhaps, but honest.<span>&nbsp;<\/span><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><font color=\"#000000\" size=\"3\" face=\"Times New Roman\">&nbsp;<\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><font size=\"3\"><font color=\"#000000\"><font face=\"Times New Roman\">Paradoxically, it is this bluntness that makes children the most natural pray-ers.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>Jesus says as much in an exchange with his students recorded in Matthew 18.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>His followers asked him how rank would be determined after the coup they assumed (erroneously) he was mounting against the Roman occupation.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>They asked, &#8220;Who will be the greatest?&#8221;<span>&nbsp; <\/span>His answer stunned them.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>He called a little child to stand beside him and said, &#8220;Here is your role model.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>If you want to know how to live life as I have designed it, become like this child.&#8221;<span>&nbsp; <\/span><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><font color=\"#000000\" size=\"3\" face=\"Times New Roman\">&nbsp;<\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><font color=\"#000000\" size=\"3\" face=\"Times New Roman\">Anyone who has heard a child pray understands the radical implications of Jesus&#8217; answer.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>Children are generally oblivious &#8211; until we condition them otherwise &#8211; to the prim and proper forms of right religion.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>For a child, talking to God is just that &#8211; talking.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>No matter is too small or too great for prayer.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>I have listened to my own children pray for farmers who need rain for crops, every orphaned child in the world, and a sick toad all in the same breath.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>They really can teach us something. <\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><font color=\"#000000\" size=\"3\" face=\"Times New Roman\">&nbsp;<\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><font color=\"#000000\" size=\"3\" face=\"Times New Roman\">Here&#8217;s a challenge: Listen to a child pray today, and go and do likewise! <\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Children are not instinctively religious.&nbsp;Once when a preacher&#8217;s sermon dragged on beyond supposed 12:00 noon scheduled close one little girl leaned over to her mother and whispered, &#8220;Mommy, if we give him the money now, will he let us go?&#8221;&nbsp; Irreverent, perhaps, but honest.&nbsp; &nbsp; Paradoxically, it is this bluntness that makes children the most&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":200,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,25,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible-prayer","category-jesus","category-life"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Learning from Expert Prayer Coaches - Children<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2009\/08\/learning-to-pray-from-experts-children.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Learning from Expert Prayer Coaches - Children\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Children are not instinctively religious.&nbsp;Once when a preacher&#8217;s sermon dragged on beyond supposed 12:00 noon scheduled close one little girl leaned over to her mother and whispered, &#8220;Mommy, if we give him the money now, will he let us go?&#8221;&nbsp; Irreverent, perhaps, but honest.&nbsp; &nbsp; Paradoxically, it is this bluntness that makes children the most&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2009\/08\/learning-to-pray-from-experts-children.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Prayer, Plain and Simple\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-08-31T05:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mark Herringshaw\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Learning from Expert Prayer Coaches - Children","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2009\/08\/learning-to-pray-from-experts-children.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Learning from Expert Prayer Coaches - Children","og_description":"Children are not instinctively religious.&nbsp;Once when a preacher&#8217;s sermon dragged on beyond supposed 12:00 noon scheduled close one little girl leaned over to her mother and whispered, &#8220;Mommy, if we give him the money now, will he let us go?&#8221;&nbsp; Irreverent, perhaps, but honest.&nbsp; &nbsp; Paradoxically, it is this bluntness that makes children the most&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2009\/08\/learning-to-pray-from-experts-children.html","og_site_name":"Prayer, Plain and Simple","article_published_time":"2009-08-31T05:00:00+00:00","author":"Mark Herringshaw","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2009\/08\/learning-to-pray-from-experts-children.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2009\/08\/learning-to-pray-from-experts-children.html","name":"Learning from Expert Prayer Coaches - Children","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-08-31T05:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2009-08-31T05:00:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/#\/schema\/person\/e51fa8f80737818cd4c3350772b30948"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2009\/08\/learning-to-pray-from-experts-children.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2009\/08\/learning-to-pray-from-experts-children.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2009\/08\/learning-to-pray-from-experts-children.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Learning from Expert Prayer Coaches &#8211; Children"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/","name":"Prayer, Plain and Simple","description":"Prayer, Daily Prayer, Simple Prayers, Quick Prayers, Prayer Requests","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/#\/schema\/person\/e51fa8f80737818cd4c3350772b30948","name":"Mark Herringshaw","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/b8e\/b8e027f03bf8fd532b692d0c68d2744ex96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/b8e\/b8e027f03bf8fd532b692d0c68d2744ex96.jpg","caption":"Mark Herringshaw"},"description":"Mark Herringshaw is writer, speaker, spiritual life coach and pastor at North Heights Church in St. Paul, Minnesota. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the author of \"Six Prayers God Always Answers: Results May Vary,\" and \"Nine Ways God Always Speaks: Only Available in Certain States,\" both co-written with Jennifer Schuchmann. His third book is \"The Karma of Jesus.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Mark is a native of Santa Cruz, California. He has studied at Azusa Pacific University, The Academy of Performing Arts, Cambridge, Ontario, and Luther Seminary. He holds a Ph.D. from Regent University. Mark and his wife Jill have four children. His true passion is walking with people in the exciting adventure of communicating with God.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/author\/mherringshaw"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/200"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}