How to: Incorporate Prayer

Faith Integration

“Two days, two moments of blessing in my teaching. A mezzo student of mine accidentally hit a clear as a bell high F6 as she overshot the written pitch by a 4th. This, of course, resulted in gales of wide-eyed laughter. I should also mention that this lesson was outside and likely the entire campus heard it. [COVID restrictions] Needless to say I am reevaluating her repertoire. Then, a performance major asked in her second of my two advanced diction classes, ‘Is this the last diction class we have?’ She was sad to hear that it was. I love it when my students start to love what they do, not because they have to because I’m their teacher. But because they have learned to love something amazing and good. Praising God for joy in my teaching.”

— Dr. Jennifer Luiken Professor of Music, Vocal Performance

How to:

Incorporate Prayer into a BlessingFilled Life

By Andrea Raines

What is prayer? This is quite the openended question, ripe for interpretation and discussion. Likely, our colleagues, friends, and family are familiar with the concept, and speaking about your prayer life is not an uncommon occurrence. Let us ask ourselves, how commonplace have we made prayer in our everyday?

I don’t pretend to have all of the answers nor be your go-to spiritual advisor. I, too, am a busy working spouse and parent, who wonders at how quickly the hours have slipped by. I do, however, have the habit of prayer, the desire to deepen my relationship with God, and the honesty of human frailty.

Foolproof Steps to an Abundant Prayer Life:

1. Decide why you wish to incorporate more regular prayer. We must identify our why to sustain our commitment.

2. Identify your preferred type(s) of prayer: meditative, spontaneous, prayer journaling, song, prayer walks, contemplative, conversational, communal, or repetitive to name a few.

3. Identify your preferred location for prayer: specific room, chapel, outdoors, in the car.

4. Identify and seize opportunities to naturally interject prayer into your day. One of the blessings of this digital age is the spiritual aids available at our fingertips. Just a few sweeps of the smartphone can access individual or communal prayer as you drive to campus (swipe the smartphone only with the car in Park, please), take care of housework, (much better than TV to fold the laundry) or as you tidy up and lock your office door for the evening.

5. Give yourself grace. Nothing in this earthly life is foolproof, and we are imperfect beings. If intentional prayer escapes you one day, remember that God desires our flawed hearts, not perfection. Turn to the Lord in very honest, conversational prayer as you would a trusted friend. (contined on page 7)

Andrea Raines is an instructor in the College of Nursing and assists with the Cover the Campus prayer project.

New nursing graduates participate in the annual Blessing of the Hands ceremony.

Watching the faithful example of loved ones with a consistent prayer life left me yearning to achieve the peace that seemed to follow. Taking this aspiration into my adult years has led me down a path rich with beautiful, meaningful friendship and bookshelves filled with scripture studies, lives and lessons of the Saints and devotionals speaking straight into the souls of busy mothers. Through all of these lessons, the one which I wish to share is the beauty that comes with embracing the everyday mundane in prayer. Grounding ourselves in prayer through our familial or professional acts of service fills our actions with love and allows the light of Christ to shine through our example in ways that far more elaborate efforts may never.

“Taking Biochemistry under Dr. Bobbie Stewart, Human Anatomy & Physiology under Steve Best and Physics under Fred Worthy further reinforced the complexity of all creation, and how insane it is to think all this just happened. The mathematical probability of that being true is really small. So whenever life gets cray, I just go outside and talk to the Lord, look up, and know He is bigger than anything.”

— Karen Collins Hames, student in the 1970s

“For me, the task of teaching theology is a task of disciple-making. Theology begins and ends with worship. That is, we should approach the study of God because we want to worship him in spirit and truth. We know we have studied him rightly when we find ourselves worshipping him more fervently than when we began. This is my personal goal, and it is a goal I seek to lead my students to pursue for themselves as well.”

— Dr. Jonathan Watson Department Chair, Christian Studies