Receiving Guidance from My Mother

In how many ways have my mother helped me or given me advice? I can't keep count.

There has been many times that I have gotten much advice from my mother, but the one I most remember is her showing me how to be spiritually strong.

I have always been a spiritual kind of person, and by that I mean that I attended church regularly, and read from the holy Bible whenever I could. I had thought that was sufficient, but I got a rude awakening when I prayed with my mother for the first time as an adult.

She had asked me to lead the night's prayer, and after thanking God for the day's guidance and the usual Our Lord's Prayer and Hail Mary, I was ready to close the prayer for the night. My mother followed along, and the next night she led the prayer.

I was amazed at her invocation of Lord's grace and mercy upon us. When she prayed, she talked to Jesus. She had conversations; she talked directly to Him, as if He was standing right in front of her. It was such a power prayer I thought that night for sure that Jesus would physically show up in our house.

You see, my mother didn't really at that moment give me any advice per se, but her action, her mode of praying, her way of talking to Jesus and God the Father moved me to think of praying in a whole new way. I have carried that night with me ever since, and when ever I'm in spirit, I have direct talks with God. I have seen the difference in my life when I talk to God, versus when I just recite some lines mindlessly.

Don't get me wrong. I recite the Lord's Prayer and so on, but I recite it in a more conscious level than I used to. Prayer is good medicine, and I thank my mother for showing me how to pray.

And now as a parent, I hope to instill the same will and passion to call on the Lord through prayers in my own children. I have my children say their prayers as often as possible. I want to make sure they feel how I feel when I hear my mother pray.