My youth pastor gave me that advice when I was in the seventh grade. His advice stuck with me through junior high, high school, college, one wedding, three kids and four major moves. And, obviously, that advice is with me now.

Through the years, as I’ve practiced the art of never saying amen, God has taught me a lot about prayer, and He has taught me a lot through prayer. God has heard me scream in anger, cry in heartbreak, shout in joy and grunt in confusion.

It’s OK to let God in on those secret thoughts no one else hears! After all, He’s fully aware of what’s going on in my brain, anyway—the brain He created! So why not acknowledge that as I go through my days?

About a year after I received this advice on prayer, a Sunday school teacher encouraged us to pray for our future spouses. So, at 13, I began praying for mine.

It’s interesting how God works. When I was 13, the man whom I’d eventually marry, Dave McGee, was 19. He was in his first year of college and struggling with his faith. He remembers coming to a point, standing in the middle of his university’s campus, thinking, Either I live like I really believe Jesus is real—sold out to Him with all that I have—or I walk away right now. No more living halfway.”

He chose to believe.

Is it a coincidence that he made that decision the same year I began praying for him? We won’t know until heaven, but I choose to believe God used my prayers in Dave’s life. The choices Dave made after that decision affected where he went and, ultimately, how we met. Of course, God didn’t need my help. But how exciting to see His hand in Dave’s and my love story!

Praying Specifically
I learned more about prayer through my husband’s mother. A pastor’s wife, Judy had learned to depend on God a great deal during the years she and Dave’s father were raising their four children. She taught me to pray specifically. Very specifically.

She gave me this advice when I was pregnant with my first child. So I ripped a piece of paper from a steno notebook and began writing my requests down for the pregnancy. Specific requests. Very specific. Stuff like what time of day I wanted to go into labor, how long I wanted it to last, what dates were preferable.

I know that sounds silly, but at that time , those things were very important. I also prayed my baby would be healthy, that she’d grow up to love God and that I’d be a wise mom. But those things were more vague—terribly important, but so far in the future, I wouldn’t see answers for many years. The time and date were more imminent!

God graciously answered almost all of my specific requests. I looked back over my torn-out steno sheet, and my faith was strengthened. God didn’t have to answer those. Children were starving in Africa; Christians were dying for their faith in China; people in the jungles of South America had never even heard the Gospel. And God cared for all of them at the same time He was planning my labor for Sunday morning, Jan. 31, 1999. He wasn’t upset at my asking, even though sometimes I felt those requests were silly compared with the greater needs around me.

God Answers Prayer!
God has shown me again and again that I’m important to Him. And what’s important to me is important to Him. He’s also developed in me a heart that’s more like His so that as I pray for my needs and the needs of my family, I also pray for those who are hungry, those who are persecuted, those who don’t know Him.

I want what God wants, because I love God, and I want to be like Him. And because I’ve seen Him work in so many specific, amazing ways, I’m more able to accept the times when His answer is no or not yet.

The more I pray, the more I’m changed. I see that God is real; He’s active; He’s involved in everything. Thanks to the advice of my youth pastor, I hardly ever say Amen. You try it!

Talking with God About Your Life
A Young Woman’s Call to Prayer
by Elizabeth George
Item code: P00550B

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