Before I left church Sunday, my friend Linda asked if she could come to my house later that day and talk with me about prayer. Since she was a very busy person, I was glad for the opportunity to listen to her and share what I had learned about that all important subject.

I knew that for some Christians, prayer comes easily. It depends on one's relationship with Jesus since childhood. Heartfelt prayers can be a natural part of growing in the faith. For others, their life of prayer needs to have a definite beginning.

That afternoon Linda and I sat at our cozy kitchen table as we sipped from our mugs of coffee. She got right to the point. "Lucy, I am ashamed to tell you this since I am so active in our church. But I do not know how to pray! If I am asked to pray in a group, I read a prayer, but I can't say the words that will form my own prayer."

I told her about the time I too discovered I did not know how to pray. I was the wife of a minister and was often expected to lead a group in prayer. So I read the closest one at hand. The day I discovered a booklet entitled Adventures in Prayer by Catherine Marshall, I discovered the reason I could not pray: I had no relationship with God the way that Marhsall did. That is always the turning point of one's prayer life. First, develop a relationship with God through His Son, Jesus Christ, and then talk with Him as if talking with your best friend.

Linda laughed as she replied, "Yes, I imagine you see me talking with many people. But how can I talk to God like that?" I opened the Bible to the Psalms. We discussed the psalmist's conversations about everything from heartache to praise and thanksgiving. His love for God and his reliance on Him was straight from his heart.

We discussed coming to God with a clean heart free of any trash of the past. "If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened, but God has surely listened and heard my voice in prayer" (Psalm 66:18-19). Sometimes we forget to pray first for ourselves so that God knows we desire to be pure vessels through which His power will flow.

Turning to the window, I said, "Look at that sparrow slowly hopping along the rock wall." We smiled as we noticed the leaf in its mouth was almost the size of its small brown body. The nest hidden among the ivy was probably its destination. But during the short flight there, the bird sank to the ground and dropped the leaf.

"Linda, sometimes I am like that bird," I said. "I stumble under the weight of worries and thoughts that I am not able to carry. Prayer is always the answer to that heaviness, as I call on God's wisdom and ask for His will to be done in the situation. Then I try to let it go," I sighed.