Minnie Goes to Heaven (86)

(a novel continued)

“KISS?”

“Keep It Simple, Stupid,” Pastor Peters said.

“Always open with prayer. Ask questions. Listen to the answers. Let them ask questions. You can’t teach them anything if you don’t know what they already know. And remember the church is behind you. We’ll pray for you and be here to support you if you need any help.”

Minnie thanked her pastor. She didn’t tell him she had resisted coming to him in the first place. He didn’t have to know.

The next meeting at Nan’s went much better.

“What no school books?” Nan said.

“I returned them,” Minnie said.

Minnie opened the time together with prayer. She asked the Lord to lead and guide the discussion. The women truly wanted a deep relationship with Jesus. They talked about their lives and what they wanted to change. When Minnie asked them to pray out one-sentence prayers, they sincerely asked Jesus to help them be more like Him. Amy wanted to improve her marriage relationship. Sue wanted to be a better parent. Brenda wanted to be less selfish. Hannah didn’t want to worry so much. 
Minnie encouraged each woman to have a private time with the Lord. Spend time reading the Bible. And spend time praying. They wanted to know how to pray. 
“Think about prayer as if you are talking to a friend,” Minnie said. She also showed them the passage where the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray. They rest of the Tuesday evening together they spend studying The Lord’s Prayer.

When Minnie kissed John good-night later that evening she admitted, “I should have listened to you in the first place.”

“I know,” he said.

“You don’t have to be quite so smug about it.”
“Not often I get an apology from you.” 

“I may be doing more apologizing,” Minnie said.

“Why do you say that?”

“I asked Jesus to purify me. I think He took me seriously.”