Prayer Journals

One of the course objectives in my class this year is to allow time for my students to “interact with God’s truth using various forms of literature.” Lest you think I take this to mean I ought to teach the Left Behind series, here’s one of the ways I’m trying to give students a chance to interact with God’s truth.

I made everyone a prayer journal, and at the beginning of each class, we start by writing a prayer.  I scribbled those words down in a notebook in Santa Fe last summer right after Lauren Winner said them. It was our first workshop together, and the other students in my cohort might remember it differently, but here’s the way I remember it:

She came into the room like Snape, or rather, like Alan Rickman did when he was Snape. Remember when he says, “I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death?”  Lauren Winner swept into the room and said, “I like to start every workshop with writing because writing is like prayer,” in the exact same tone as Snape.

Snape has always been my favorite character in the Harry Potter series.  I rooted for him from the beginning and I knew there was more to him then what it seemed. People don’t believe me when I say this, but it’s true.  Anyway, Lauren Winner reminded me of Snape and she said those words and I wrote them down, and here’s one way they’re being used in the world about a year later.

The students had to read The Princess Bride over the summer, so I took a few lines from the book and wrote prayers for them, then allowed space for them to add their own thoughts.

I don’t know if the students get it. I don’t know if they see the interaction with a truth of God’s through the story and the prayer, but this is my offering of a witness to them.

In Santa Fe this summer, I told Lauren Winner (I’ll always only call her “Lauren Winner”) in my thank yous, that, “last year in our first workshop together you said you like to start each session with writing because writing is like prayer. I scribbled those words down because when I write I think I’m sometimes saying to God, ‘Here is what you gave me, and here, look what I did with it.’ Thank you for helping me pray.”

I don’t know whether my students will be able to say that this year, but I guess I’m working on my faith here with them because I believe that someday they will.