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Discover Your Child's Natural Prayer Style · 5–Minute Parenting: Tips to Help You Raise Competent, Godly Kids.

• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to another episode of Five Minute Parenting.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: Today I have a special guest, Jana McHenry.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: Jana is a national speaker.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: She's the author of 26 books, seven of which are on prayer, including the best-selling prayer walk and her newest praying personalities, Finding Your Natural Prayer Style.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: She's a mom of four and a nana of 10.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: And she's actually lives with her husband Craig in the Sierra Valley, where they're cattle ranchers.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: Janet directs the ministries of the prayer ministries of Bridge Church in Reno, and she serves on the California leadership team for the National Day of Prayer.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm excited for her topic today: discover your child's natural praying style.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: So welcome, Janet.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I can't wait to hear more about this topic.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for having me, Sandra.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_01: What a treat.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: And if you would just share with us your topic, that would be great.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, awesome.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_01: Well, um, I am a crazy prayer-walking woman, and I fell into that practice about 25 years ago.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_01: And uh I was suffering from physical problems, and one day my knee gave way as I was walking down the stairs.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_01: And from that crumpled heap, I realized I needed to do something about my health.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: So I started um the practice of walking, and I got up a little bit earlier the next morning and began praying uh while I walked.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: And it was as simple as that.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_01: You know, there was a lot of mindness in my prayers, you know, my kids, my marriage, and um my job as a high school English teacher here in our little town in the Sierras.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_01: And that changed all one day when I saw a young man before six o'clock in the morning.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_01: It was still dark out, and he handed over his little blanketed bundle downtown in front of the daycare center into the arms of the daycare worker, waiting for him.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_01: And his little girl said, Bye, Daddy, I love you.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_01: And I knew right then that God had me out on the streets, less for the mindness of my prayers, but more for the needs of others.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_01: So I began opening up my eyes and praying for whatever God put within my eyesight.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_01: And so, because it was so transforming to me physically, emotionally, and spiritually, I began writing about the topic.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_01: And as I began speaking about it, there would be always someone who would come up to me afterwards and say, But Janet, I can't walk.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_01: What do I do?
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_01: And so that stuck with me until a few years ago when I was speaking with a group of people and I heard myself say, perhaps it has something to do with our God-given personality, you know, the way that we approach God.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_01: So as I as I studied uh in the Bible, I saw that the people approach God in so many different ways.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_01: You know, that um Job was more of a thinker and he simply wanted to understand his pain.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_01: And the, and when he heard from God, he didn't need to say another word.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_01: And then we had Moses who argued with God for two full chapters as to why he couldn't lead the people out of Egypt and and so forth, you know, emotional prayers, those who prayed with their whole physical being, those who were very devoted in practice, such as Daniel.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: And so um I began scouring God's word for all of that insight, and which led into um the idea that perhaps, you know, we in our God-given personality, maybe there's no one size fits-all way to pray.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um, perhaps, you know, and so then as uh I've written the book and I began thinking about in terms of how it applies to marriages and how it applies to our children and you know what we expect out of one another.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_01: You know, perhaps I have a certain prayer style, and maybe that's maybe that's sort of a problem-solving kind of perspective.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: And uh my prayers are you know, short and succinct and to the point and so forth.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_01: But maybe I have a child who simply loves to talk, you know, she may be super outgoing, she's very relational, and so her prayers are maybe may have that different kind of uh tone to them, even.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_01: And and perhaps I also have another child, and I'm thinking of my four children when I'm doing this.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe I have another child who is more has more of an emotional makeup.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: And perhaps for her, what she finds is most fulfilling and uh the way that she really draws close to God is through journaling, through writing out all of her prayers.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_01: Now that's not that's not my my my uh prayer style.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I think it's uh wise in our family situations to recognize that you know each of us has a different God-given personality.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_01: You know, in marriages, they say opposites attract.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: So that means that we're probably going to have different ways that we approach our spiritual disciplines that we have, God, the study of God's word and prayer and so forth.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_01: So uh I think there um is a lot of grace and freedom in terms of the way the Bible uh informs, you know, a lot of this uh praying information to us that um we can go to God at any time, in any manner.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um we can um negotiate with him, such as Gideon did, we can cry out to him in our pain, as such as Hannah did.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we can um say, uh, be it to me as you have done, as Mary said, and then have this praise, you know, long prayer praise.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it doesn't matter.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_01: God created us each uniquely, he recognizes who we are, and he um accepts us in the way that we approach him.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: That's such a good perspective because I know as I've led prayer in different churches, you know, there are some people who may irritate us the way they pray, because maybe they pray too emotionally or too long, but you know, this this helps us see how much grace we need to give to people because there it's their relationship with God and it's the way they pray.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that's I think these insights are so good for us to hear.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_01: And I think even in you know, small group settings and churches, um, if we have like a really kind of a domineering sort of a leader, and she says, Janet, will you close us in prayer?
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I get this pit in my stomach, and I've written seven books on prayer now, you know.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_01: I I but if I had a heads up, um, I would be more than happy to step into that role.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_01: So just in thinking in the family setting, instead of saying, you know, um, Adam, will you, you know, lead the blessing tonight for our meal?
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe what he actually needs, maybe he needs something written down for him.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_01: You know, there are there are those who who want that kind of help.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_01: You know, the words necessarily won't come all that easy to them.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_01: But then when we ask Susie, you know, will you say the blessing?
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_01: She's like, sure, because she's she's in a group setting, she's very relational.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um, she's what I would call a friend of God.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_01: And she, when she walks into the room, there's kind of a party, you know.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_01: She loves being around people and praying with people is so fulfilling for her.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_01: So we're all going to be different and kind of recognizing those differences in one another and sort of creating awareness of that, I think, is healthy in terms of how we're not only going to grow individually, but also collectively as a Christian body.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: That's so true.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: Have you written a book specifically geared towards um discovering your child's praying style?
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_01: I wrote a book called Um Prayer Changes Teens, How to Parent from Your Knees.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_01: But that book is specifically for parents.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_01: It helps kind of coach them into different ways to pray over 20, some areas of conflict that you might have with your teenager.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_01: But I have not written that kind of a book yet, Sandra.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_01: But that's a great idea.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: Parents know how to recognize their their child's emotional makeup, you know, like you said, their difference.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: And then that would be a help for the parent to help them, you know, learn more about praying the way they know how to pray.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, we have four kids, each is a different personality.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_01: You know, years ago, I I studied um Christian personality theory and began understanding that every single child in our household was different from one another.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_01: And so, why did they not all get along?
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_01: Because they were different from one another.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_01: They they struggled to understand what you know, what created motivation for each other and and how they like to uh receive instruction, you know, how they like to communicate.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_01: They're all so different.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what makes life interesting, though, isn't it?
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: It sure is.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: And you've just given us some very interesting concepts to think about because I mean a lot of parents know that their kids are different, but they never thought about that spiritually or how to how their children, you know, pray or relate to God.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you so much for sharing these insights with us.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: And um, I wanted to tell everyone that Janet's um website is in our notes.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: So please visit her website, check out all of her books that she's written, and so you find out more about Janet.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: And it's been a delight having you today, Janet on Five Minute Parenting.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much, Sandra.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_01: What a what a fun thing to do today.