Shared Prayer

     It had been a horrible day. I'd had to punish a student at school, and my emotions were a wreck. After my class left for the day, I discovered I would have to give another punishment on the morrow. My heart was deeply troubled. I dreaded the morning.
    The next day before school started the upper grade teacher, appeared at my classroom door. "I wondered if you would like to have a prayer?" he asked. And so we did. 

    All of the teaching staff gathered in the office moments before children began arriving, closed the door, and lifted our hearts and problems heavenward. It was a very special time for me. Not only did God feel near, but the knowledge that my co-teachers cared about me and my class was so comforting. I could face the day, not feeling alone.
    I think sometimes we forget the power of praying together. Or maybe we are hesitant and embarrassed to suggest it to those around us. But the power of calling upon God together is a beautiful, binding moment that He blesses.
    In fact, Matthew 18:19 says, "Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven."
    My mind goes to other times of prayers in the midst of challenge: bowing with my family when the burden has become too heavy for our human shoulders to bear, sharing hearts and tears while sitting in a dark car with a friend and then lifting our hearts heavenward together, joining hands while tears fell in the youth girls' Sunday school to pray for our fellow youth that had gone astray. Each memory is precious.
    Let us not forsake shared prayer. There is courage and power in praying together. May we learn to lean more on one another and the love of our great God in Heaven who has promised to hear every plea that falls from the lips of the sincere seeker.