First published as a series of ten articles, Lord, Teach Us to Pray is an excellent, thought-provoking book on prayer that brings the reader back to essentials of not just praying, but walking in the faith.

Sharing intimately from her own life, the author goes back to the source teaching on prayer to be found in the Scriptures, when the disciples asked Jesus how to pray, and he answered, "Pray, then, in this way..." But we're not talking about "vain repetition," such as I remember from my own childhood. We dutifully recited the Lord's Prayer at bedtime every night. I don't remember that my parents ever talked about what it meant; it was just something, I guess, that they thought we should know. They were churchgoers, but only came to faith late in life, after all their children had grown up and gone on. Of their children - myself and my siblings - half are believers today.

No, not vain repetition, rattling off the words without giving them much thought: there's no magic in the words by themselves, strung together like so many pearls on a necklace, shiny but cold. The wonder is in meditating on the meaning of the words, their placement, their significance, and the truths they convey.

Phrase by phrase, sometimes word by word, the author moves through the Lord's prayer, meditating on the meanings, the significance, the relationship between God and believer in Christ as revealed in this short but powerful prayer. The book begins in the Garden of Eden, touches on the lives of familiar figures in the Bible, and calls us to make an honest evaluation of our own lives and walk with God.

I must admit that this is a book I've had to read during that quiet early-morning time while the children are asleep. More than once I've been moved to tears in the reading. But I've also taken away from the reading rich morsels of food for thought to chew on, and these have sparked discussion later in the day. When I finished the book, I put it on our eldest daughter's reading pile for her devotional time, and I look forward to hearing her insights.

But I think that this is a book I'll return to, the next time life gets over-busy and my prayers seem dry and profitless. Lord, Teach Us to Pray is something like a drink of cool, refreshing water in a parched and thirsty land.

A print version of this book is also available for $10.