Sign in with Facebook
Sheila 's Reviews > A Praying Life: Connecting With God In A Distracting World
A Praying Life: Connecting With God In A Distracting World
by
by
I am very ambivalent about this book. While there are parts that I really enjoyed, there are other parts that really annoyed me.
I enjoyed learning about the author's autistic daughter Kim. He is very open with the struggles she has faced, and the prayers he has had for her over the years.
The author also says that Jesus' example teaches us that prayer is about relationship. When Jesus prays, he is not performing a duty; he is getting close to his Father.
Yet then the author goes on to make it seem as though prayer is hard, and even makes it out to be work. He talks about creating prayer cards to flip through every time you pray, focusing on all the individuals close to you, cards for areas of your life you want to improve, and cards for friends and non-believers, and to pray the prayers on these cards over and over. Or if you don't want to do cards he says to create a prayer journal along the same idea. He believes that if we don't write down our prayer requests, we don't take prayer seriously. Seriously?
Then the author goes on to describe a summary of a typical morning of prayer for him. This summary included setting his alarm for five forty to get up to pray, then sleeping through the alarm for five minutes, than crawling out of bed, getting dressed, and going down to a living room chair to pray through his cards. Then, as soon as he sat down, his autistic daughter began to pace upstairs, so she had to yell at her to go back to bed. Then he prayed through his cards, then his daughter started pacing again, so he yelled at her again to go back to bed, then he prayed more through his cards. Then he was again interrupted by his autistic daughter pacing upstairs, so he stopped praying, went upstairs (since yelling at her wasn't working) and told her to stay in bed. This made her so angry she bit her arm. Then he threatened to take away privileges for the day, which made her bite her arm again. After she calmed down, he went back to his praying.
The author apparently wrote about the interruptions from his autistic daughter to show that prayer time may not be perfect. Yet the whole time I was reading his prayer scenario, all I could think was "This is not how prayer is supposed to be" and "This is not what God would want for prayer time". I wanted to tell him "Put down your cards, and go comfort and deal with your daughter." I don't understand why he felt he had to set an alarm (which he wanted to sleep through) to pray. Pray in your own bed. Comfort your daughter, lay down with her if you want her to stay in bed, and pray while laying in bed with her. Pray in the shower. Pray while driving. Pray while going for a walk. Why make prayer a chore? Why yell at and neglect your family because they are interrupting your prayer time? I just didn't get it.
Yet this book has excellent reviews and a very high average rating here on Goodreads, so maybe I am missing his point. Or maybe his idea of praying and my idea of praying just don't match.
I enjoyed learning about the author's autistic daughter Kim. He is very open with the struggles she has faced, and the prayers he has had for her over the years.
The author also says that Jesus' example teaches us that prayer is about relationship. When Jesus prays, he is not performing a duty; he is getting close to his Father.
Yet then the author goes on to make it seem as though prayer is hard, and even makes it out to be work. He talks about creating prayer cards to flip through every time you pray, focusing on all the individuals close to you, cards for areas of your life you want to improve, and cards for friends and non-believers, and to pray the prayers on these cards over and over. Or if you don't want to do cards he says to create a prayer journal along the same idea. He believes that if we don't write down our prayer requests, we don't take prayer seriously. Seriously?
Then the author goes on to describe a summary of a typical morning of prayer for him. This summary included setting his alarm for five forty to get up to pray, then sleeping through the alarm for five minutes, than crawling out of bed, getting dressed, and going down to a living room chair to pray through his cards. Then, as soon as he sat down, his autistic daughter began to pace upstairs, so she had to yell at her to go back to bed. Then he prayed through his cards, then his daughter started pacing again, so he yelled at her again to go back to bed, then he prayed more through his cards. Then he was again interrupted by his autistic daughter pacing upstairs, so he stopped praying, went upstairs (since yelling at her wasn't working) and told her to stay in bed. This made her so angry she bit her arm. Then he threatened to take away privileges for the day, which made her bite her arm again. After she calmed down, he went back to his praying.
The author apparently wrote about the interruptions from his autistic daughter to show that prayer time may not be perfect. Yet the whole time I was reading his prayer scenario, all I could think was "This is not how prayer is supposed to be" and "This is not what God would want for prayer time". I wanted to tell him "Put down your cards, and go comfort and deal with your daughter." I don't understand why he felt he had to set an alarm (which he wanted to sleep through) to pray. Pray in your own bed. Comfort your daughter, lay down with her if you want her to stay in bed, and pray while laying in bed with her. Pray in the shower. Pray while driving. Pray while going for a walk. Why make prayer a chore? Why yell at and neglect your family because they are interrupting your prayer time? I just didn't get it.
Yet this book has excellent reviews and a very high average rating here on Goodreads, so maybe I am missing his point. Or maybe his idea of praying and my idea of praying just don't match.
Sign into Goodreads to see if any of your friends have read
A Praying Life.
Sign In »
Reading Progress
May 3, 2011
– Shelved
June 17, 2013
–
Started Reading
July 16, 2013
–
Finished Reading
Comments Showing 1-12 of 12 (12 new)
date
newest »
newest »
message 1:
by
Petra It's a year now, still in a dark place
(new)
Jul 17, 2013 09:49PM
It's always the same, it's different strokes but one thinks that only their way is the really correct one.
reply
|
flag
Interesting Trice, that you write in your comments about my review "I would just be careful in judging from the outside" and " Setting aside judgement here seems especially appropriate". Do you know anything about me? Or my experiences? Or what I may know about living life with an autistic child? Maybe you should also consider setting aside judgement about me, and my review. I know more than just "bits and pieces I've gathered" (your comment) about living with an autistic child. This review is just MY thoughts on this book, based on my own life and experiences.
Peace! :-)
I read your comment with enjoyment Sheila.
Thank you, Petra! :-)
Trice, my feeling is I am allowed to judge THIS BOOK. It is published, it is being sold, I read it, and I am allowed to say on a social book and reading site what I thought of this book, being a published work put out for sale. I am reviewing the book as a consumer of the book. The passages I wrote about turned me off, completely. Even if he talked about his daughter being older in another part of the book, the specific part of him taking about praying while she was having difficulties upstairs still completely turned me off to the book, and to the author's idea of how a person should pray, which is what this book is about. As to myself, I do not feel any need to have to identify myself, or my personal experiences or life background, in order to write a personal review of a book I read. I am making no money off this review. My profile here on Goodreads is private, because I am a generally private person. I write reviews mainly for myself, to remember why I did or did not like a book. My friends here on Goodreads can also read all my reviews (all 1,271 of them as of this moment, as I write a review for myself about everything I read, good or bad), and then others, like yourself, can stumble across my reviews. But I'm not a professional reviewer, or a blogger, or someone doing this for a living. I'm just a voracious reader who likes to write down my thoughts after I have read something.
I am interested in the fact that you say you were bothered by the part I describe, yet you were able to set it aside based on the other things he wrote about his daughter. I am glad that you were able to do that. I was not able to set it aside, but again, without saying too much about myself or my family, his situation with his daughter was very identifiable to me, personally. And I would prefer not to yell at "someone" and ignore them, while they are having issues beyond their control, causing them to have a meltdown, just so I can go back to prayer cards. That is not MY idea of getting closer to God. That part of the book really turned me off. I wouldn't do it. I won't do it. It bothered me. So I wrote that it bothered me.
Nothing ironic meant in my closing of "Peace". I really don't like to fight or argue, but I felt I needed to "justify" by review to you, even though I really shouldn't have to, but in the end I have no hard feelings so that was the meaning of "Peace".
I love Narnia by the way. :-)
Sheila, thank you for your comment. I also struggled with this book, and with many of his anecdotes. There were nuggets of truth in the book, but personally, not enough to recommend the book. I agree that he obviously struggles as a parent, and seems far too concerned with doing things 'right' (such as setting a prayer time to go through prayer perfectly) than living honestly in his imperfect life. I have no trouble believing that may be less true than it appears from his book, but the way he writes and the anecdotes he chooses often left a bad taste in my mouth. He may be an amazing man. This BOOK, however, is not amazing and at the very least needed (in my mind) a better editor who could say 'hey Paul, you seem to be veering off course here, I'm not sure you're communicating this right." But clearly we're in the minority, so thank you for sharing your review.
Sheila you are very fierce! (I love that about you).
Thank you for commenting, Allyson! It is nice to hear from someone else that had similar thoughts on this book. I agree completely with you that he seemed far too concerned with doing things "right". You expressed that beautifully!And thank you, Petra! That is a lovely comment.
I understand why he did it that way sometimes I just get tired of my daughter who has autism and sometimes she does better if i don't cater to her, she normally sleeps well thank goodness, but yes prayer like brother Lawrence taught is all the time it's not a set time and sometimes it's best to comfort or be gentle with my child not in a way without boundaries but in a way where I have peace in my spirit.
Sheila, agree. I’m glad I’m not alone.
Amie wrote: "Sheila, agree. I’m glad I’m not alone." Thank you, Amie. I am glad I am not alone as well.
Yeah I felt like that too but there were parts that were very refreshing too. In a way, his theory is better than his practice.
