Her name was Emma Daniel Gray. Just the other day, she passed away.
For 24 years she cleaned the White House at night. Each evening she cleaned the president’s office and paused when she came to the president’s chair. At that point, she would pray, still holding her cleaning materials. During all those years, she prayed for each president who sat in that chair. She prayed for six different presidents during the time that she worked at the White House. What did she pray? She prayed for these presidents to have blessings, wisdom and safety.
Emma Daniel Gray made a difference.
- Who knows how God answered these middle-of-the-night prayers.
- Who knows what God did when he heard this simple woman utter a prayer each night on behalf of one of the presidents.
- Who knows how God moved because this woman prayed.
Consider these words: “The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective” (James 5:16). When we pray to God, we are participating in a moment that is powerful and effective.
So when you come to the chair, what do you pray?
(The information regarding Emma Daniel Gray comes from Patricia Sullivan of The Washington Post.)
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Questions
When you pray for your spouse, what do you pray?
When you pray for your special friend, what do you pray?
When you pray for your minister/preacher/pastor, etc., what do you pray?
What is the prayer of your heart as you pray for these people?
Thats ann interesting story, I hadnt heard about her before.
What a delight to read that story! Thanks for sharing it!
We have no greater occasion to be heard than through prayer, yet I fear we often neglect our opportunities of taking our cares to God, and offering thanks for our many blessings. Nor could we ask for one more attentive, or caring and compassionate.
I know too often I’m guilty of not “taking it to the Lord in prayer.” "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!" Mark 9:24
Thanks very much Liam– Connie— and Janice— I was encouraged by this story.
I think many of us will be surprised to find that the person who does his/her job with a servant-hearted attitude as unto the Lord, a life-time of perhaps not being recognized by those they so lovingly serve, and possibly a feeling of not ever having made a difference, are, in fact, in God's eyes, the greater movers and shakers of this world than those who think much to highly of themselves – and we of them!
Jim, I linked to your story at my blog – hope you don't mind!