“How Do You Pray?” is an article from Dr. Gordon H. Clark’s papers. Both the original scan and a transcribed document are here made available. If you notice any typos on the typed document please email the administrator at douglasdouma@yahoo.com.
**Items from the unpublished papers of Dr. Gordon H. Clark should not be considered his definitive statement on the particular topic addressed. These papers are being provided for educational value. For Dr. Clark’s official positions consult his published writings.**
Unpublished 69. How Do You Pray? (original)
Unpublished 69. How Do You Pray? (typed)
Notes: From the papers of Dr. Gordon H. Clark. From “The Home Evangel”, Jan 1950, Vol 11. No. 1.
How Do You Pray?
Six-year-old Timmy for the first time was watching his father fix a flat tire. He was very curious. What made it flat? How did the air get out? Why was Daddy fixing it? And so on. Daddy told Timmy about tacks, nails, and glass in the road and what they did to inner tubes; and he had to fix it because he had to take a long trip tomorrow.
That evening the family – what a fortunate family – was having family devotions in which everyone prayed. Sister, age nine, had learned some of the usual language for prayer, but Timmy was more direct and blunt. “O God,” he prayed, “when my Daddy drives tomorrow, please take all the tacks and nails and glass off the road … And if you have to, O God, you can put them back on again after he has gone by.”
Timmy is to be commended for his earnestness in prayer. He is an example to those who do not pray. But there are some adults who ought to do better in prayer than Timmy does, and yet they fail. They may not be so obviously selfish as the old man who prayed, “God bless me and thee, our son John, his wife, us four, and no more.” But they may be almost as restricted in their outlook. Let us check up on ourselves. How are our prayers. Lord, teach us to pray.
G.H.C