"Lord, teach us to pray."

When I was 13, me and my friends Nick and Jay thought it would be a great idea to get instruments for Christmas and be the next power trio like Nirvana, Green Day, or Blink 182. Nick was to be on guitar, Jay the bass, and myself the drums. Now my home was a small 1000 square foot 2 bedroom 1 bath house. My parents were not on board for the drum kit but did think a guitar would be an excellent substitute. So that meant we had to get a drummer and we found Dan who would occasionally jam with us.

I never took formal guitar lessons. I never sat down with an instructor and said “Teach me to play Enter Sandman.” I had to figure it out on my own. I would get a tab print out off the web and then spend hours with my guitar and a stereo listening to the parts and then trying to replicate it on my guitar.

Guitar is something you only learn through the act of playing it.  Through constant practice you develop skill and proficiency. You can listen to riffs and melodies all day, but you have to play the guitar to master the riffs and melodies. Even with an instructor, you only learn through the act of playing the guitar.

Prayer is exactly like this. We can receive teaching about it, read moving testimonies of answered prayer, or even listen to the prayers of others, but it is only through praying ourselves that we learn to pray.

“Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” Ands he said to them, “When you pray, say, …” Luke 11:1-2

Notice the. “When you pray…” the disciples had to put action to Jesus’s instruction and when they did, they learned how to pray.  We learn to pray by praying. There is so much to discover and experience when we do this. You can start right now with the very same request, “Lord, teach me how to pray."