{"id":485,"date":"2012-12-23T17:52:20","date_gmt":"2012-12-23T22:52:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/truthsyoucanuse\/?p=485"},"modified":"2012-12-23T17:52:20","modified_gmt":"2012-12-23T22:52:20","slug":"proof-of-the-power-of-prayer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/2012\/12\/proof-of-the-power-of-prayer.html","title":{"rendered":"Proof of the Power of Prayer"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"power<\/a><\/p>\n

Something magical happens in our home on Friday night. The bustle of the week stops. The noise of dinner time fades away. The iPad powers down (at least for a while).<\/p>\n

What changes everything, however, is the moment we put our hands on our children and say a blessing over them. The blessing is short, personal, and changes every week. Its impact, however, is almost always the same: a smile, a hug, and a relaxed look of joy.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not the words themselves that are magical. It\u2019s words together with the mood and the people.<\/p>\n

What Prayer Does<\/strong><\/p>\n

The old saying goes \u201cA family that prays together stays together.\u201d While experience and reflection make that statement seem simplistic for me, the truth is that prayer creates a unique feeling of kinship and joy.<\/p>\n

It helps children feel connected and secure, and it reminds adults that there is more to life than constant activity. Prayer puts life in perspective.<\/p>\n

Pray for Ourselves<\/strong><\/p>\n

Some might object that the purpose of prayer is not to make us feel better. It is to speak to God. This view of prayer is far too limiting.<\/p>\n

In fact, the Hebrew word li-hit-palel<\/em> means \u201cto pray,\u201d and it falls into the category of what linguists called \u201creflexive verbs.\u201d That means that the direct object of the verb \u201cto pray\u201d is ourselves. When we pray, we are shaping ourselves.<\/p>\n

In this time of holiday celebration, let us remember the power of prayer. It\u2019s not just something we do in a church or synagogue. It\u2019s something we can do in our homes, with our family and friends, and with all those we love.<\/p>\n

By\u00a0Evan Moffic<\/a>,<\/p>\n

GET A FREE EBOOK: HOW TO FORGIVE EVEN WHEN IT HURTS.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Something magical happens in our home on Friday night. The bustle of the week stops. The noise of dinner time fades away. The iPad powers down (at least for a while). What changes everything, however, is the moment we put our hands on our children and say a blessing over them. The blessing is short,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":507,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[184,39,188,187,4],"class_list":["post-485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-children","tag-faith","tag-families","tag-holidays","tag-prayer"],"yoast_head":"\nProof of the Power of Prayer - Truths You Can Use<\/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\/truthsyoucanuse\/2012\/12\/proof-of-the-power-of-prayer.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Proof of the Power of Prayer - Truths You Can Use\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Something magical happens in our home on Friday night. The bustle of the week stops. The noise of dinner time fades away. The iPad powers down (at least for a while). What changes everything, however, is the moment we put our hands on our children and say a blessing over them. The blessing is short,…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/2012\/12\/proof-of-the-power-of-prayer.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Truths You Can Use\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/RabbiEvan\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-12-23T22:52:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/truthsyoucanuse\/files\/2012\/12\/power-of-prayer-300x251.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Evan Moffic\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@chicagorabbi\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Proof of the Power of Prayer - Truths You Can Use","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\/truthsyoucanuse\/2012\/12\/proof-of-the-power-of-prayer.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Proof of the Power of Prayer - Truths You Can Use","og_description":"Something magical happens in our home on Friday night. The bustle of the week stops. The noise of dinner time fades away. The iPad powers down (at least for a while). What changes everything, however, is the moment we put our hands on our children and say a blessing over them. The blessing is short,…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/2012\/12\/proof-of-the-power-of-prayer.html","og_site_name":"Truths You Can Use","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/RabbiEvan\/","article_published_time":"2012-12-23T22:52:20+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/truthsyoucanuse\/files\/2012\/12\/power-of-prayer-300x251.jpg"}],"author":"Evan Moffic","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@chicagorabbi","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/2012\/12\/proof-of-the-power-of-prayer.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/2012\/12\/proof-of-the-power-of-prayer.html","name":"Proof of the Power of Prayer - Truths You Can Use","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/2012\/12\/proof-of-the-power-of-prayer.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/2012\/12\/proof-of-the-power-of-prayer.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/truthsyoucanuse\/files\/2012\/12\/power-of-prayer-300x251.jpg","datePublished":"2012-12-23T22:52:20+00:00","dateModified":"2012-12-23T22:52:20+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/#\/schema\/person\/55ddc5e03d79abbfcc6d4f944687d65d"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/2012\/12\/proof-of-the-power-of-prayer.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/2012\/12\/proof-of-the-power-of-prayer.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/2012\/12\/proof-of-the-power-of-prayer.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/truthsyoucanuse\/files\/2012\/12\/power-of-prayer-300x251.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/truthsyoucanuse\/files\/2012\/12\/power-of-prayer-300x251.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/2012\/12\/proof-of-the-power-of-prayer.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Proof of the Power of Prayer"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/","name":"Truths You Can Use","description":"Jewish Wisdom, Jewish Blogs, Daily Jewish Inspiration and Jewish News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/?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\/truthsyoucanuse\/#\/schema\/person\/55ddc5e03d79abbfcc6d4f944687d65d","name":"Evan Moffic","description":"Rabbi Evan Moffic writes for people of all faiths. His book, What Every Christian Needs to Know About the Jewishness of Jesus was a 2015 best-seller. His upcoming book of devotions\u2014Shalom for the Heart\u2014takes short biblical passages and show they way they can help us make better choices and live with fewer regrets. With Rabbi Moffic, you will find an open, accessible guide to life\u2019s deepest truths. A husband and father, he graduated from Stanford University in 2000, and was ordained a rabbi in 2006. He leads a congregation in suburban Chicago. You can connect with him directly at emoffic@gmail.com.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.rabbimoffic.com","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/RabbiEvan\/","https:\/\/x.com\/chicagorabbi"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/author\/emoffic"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/507"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=485"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":488,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485\/revisions\/488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}