Praying Like Hannah

I stood in my daughter’s college dorm room, trying to be brave. We’d just hauled computers, clothes and crates to her room and her brother’s on another floor. Both were starting their first year at a college four hours’ drive from home.
I thought about the Bible’s Hannah, who praised God upon leaving her toddler son at the tabernacle. The reality of the empty nest hit me hard, even though my children were 18 and 20. I sobbed as my husband led us in a goodbye prayer.
What gave Hannah such courage and grace? I began to get an answer as I studied 1 Samuel and saw how her prayers changed.

PRESSURE PRAYERS
Hannah’s story began with the types of prayers I’d often prayed: “pressure prayers.” I’d ask God to do what I thought was best. Childless, Hannah had prayed over and over for God to grant her a son, so important in her culture. Her sorrow deepened as her husband’s second wife produced many sons. In her grief, Hannah couldn’t see God’s higher purposes, including her miracle son being groomed for a special ministry as a prophet.
I was a lot like Hannah: blind to how God’s ways are higher than our ways (Isaiah 55:8-9). Single through my early thirties, I’d prayed about my desire for marriage. God heard those “pressure prayers,” but He also knew that when I was 31 my parents would die just months apart. As a single woman, I was better able to deal with the resultant huge responsibilities. I saw the wisdom of God’s timing after I married at 34 and then experienced the whirlwind of mothering young children.

PERMISSION PRAYERS
One year, a vital shift occurred as Hannah prayed for a son. She called herself God’s “maidservant,” implying she saw herself as God’s vessel instead of a deprived woman. Her prayer became “if you give me a son,” not when. She gave God “permission” to leave her childless; but if He did send a son, she vowed to give him back to the Lord in life-long service.
Essentially, her prayer stated that she would yield to God’s wisdom in this matter, not knowing that included grooming her to be Samuel’s prayer supporter.
Looking back, I traced my own journey to prayers permitting God to bring blessing out of negatives. For example, allergies cobbled my son’s performance on the cross-country track team. Instead of asking God to help my son win, I permitted Him to teach my son about the honor of a “personal best” while encouraging other lagging runners. Similarly, when my daughter lost the junior high vice president election by a handful of votes, I allowed God to build her character through disappointment. Five years later, at high school graduation, her character shone as teachers voted her “Outstanding Senior Girl.”

PRAISE PRAYERS
What faith Hannah showed in placing Samuel’s chubby little hand inside the wrinkled palm of Eli the priest. As she fulfilled her vow of returning Samuel to God, her heart swelled with a magnificent song. She praised God for His strength, sovereignty, justice, wisdom, power, and protection (1 Samuel 1:1-10).
In singing “He will guard the feet of His saints” (v. 9), she had to trust God even with the negative influence of Eli’s evil sons. Did Hannah’s prayers affect her son’s spiritual fiber? I’d say yes, from his statement years later to the nation: “Far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by failing to pray for you” (1 Samuel 12:23).
God took me beyond “permission” prayers as my children neared the college years. By now we were living on my husband’s small retired teacher pension plus substitute teaching wages. I was also taking care of his widowed mother, who had Alzheimer’s. My dream of sending our kids to a Christian college where their faith would be nurtured seemed improbable.
My son started at a nearby junior college. Then we were surprised when our daughter’s high school principal nominated her for a full-ride scholarship at a state university. When she won it and generous scholarships also came for our son as a transfer student, I had to praise God for His greater plan. Not only would they eventually graduate debt-free, but during their college years they connected with a nurturing church family near campus.

PROTECTIVE PRAYERS
Hannah didn’t forget her son. Each year she sewed and delivered a bigger robe. I thought about that expression of mother-love as I sewed patchwork quilts for my son and daughter’s dorm beds. I believe that with each stitch, Hannah prayed for her son’s protection and for those at the tabernacle now raising him.
I know that my sewing hours included praying protectively against the evils my children would encounter at a secular college. Appropriately, much prayer happened when I was on my knees on the living room floor tying 400 patchwork squares into a quilt.
I thought of how I’d prayed “protectively” even back to babyhood. In their toddler years, bedtime prayers included their future life-mate. As they grew up, they knew I prayed for urgent concerns like tests, competitions or health. I also prayed privately for them to grow in godly character.
My children have now graduated from college, married Christians and are launching their careers. They (and I) have come a long way from that tearful goodbye in their dorm.
I’m grateful for the lessons about prayer I received from Hannah. Most of all, I’m thankful for her reminder that a mother’s prayer work is never done.