Beyond Mediocrity Blog

(Image courtesy of https://proxy.duckduckgo.com/.) "Train up a child in the way he should go... [for] folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it far from him" (Proverbs 22:6, 15). As the school year begins (or, for some, has already begun), we turn our attention to academics: to learning and to teaching.  Some will send their youngsters off to school, while others will give them academic instruction at home.  However a family decides to prepare their children for independence, this much is true in every situation: parents are teachers. Parents have a crucial role in instructing their children.  Not only should parents teach skills like how to fold clothes, how to get dressed, and how to sit at the table, but parents should also be giving moral instruction in everything they do to their children.

(Image courtesy of https://upload.wikimedia.org.) "Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed by Thy Name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.  Amen" ("The Lord's Prayer," Matthew 6). Much can be gleaned from our Lord's teaching on prayer.  Specifically, I want to focus on three areas in the Lord's prayer that are helpful in understanding the purpose of prayer and also practical helps in the area of how to pray.  Jesus, of course, was answering the latter statement directly when his disciples asked him, "Lord, teach us to pray."  As a result, three distinct ideas are taught by Jesus to his disciples on the subject of prayer.