Some new friends I’ve begun spending time with recently are all religious people. Two or three times now, one of the girls has offered to pray before we eat. I have absolutely no idea how to handle that properly. I know I’m responsible for doing or saying something, but I don’t know when or how.<\/p>\n\t
I’ve run into it before, though it has been rarer of late. Somehow people expect a preacher to lead prayers in a gathering, so I usually end up being asked to lead a prayer.<\/p>\n
There have been times when some woman announces that she is going to pray. When that happens, I don’t participate. I’m respectfully silent, but I don’t bow my head with the others. People pick up on that, and will sometimes ask. That becomes an opening to discuss I Timothy 2:11-12.<\/p>\n
If a woman asks if I mind, I’ll typically say “yes.” I’m old enough now to realize that it is quite alright to speak my mind — especially when I’m asked. How she responds to that then determines where I go from there.<\/p>\n
When I don’t participate in a prayer, I do say my own silently afterward. Who knows, it might lead to a discussion about why.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: Some new friends I’ve begun spending time with recently are all religious people. Two or three times now, one of the girls has offered to pray before we eat. I have absolutely no idea how to handle that properly. I know I’m responsible for doing or saying something, but I don’t know when or…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[1510,82],"class_list":["post-30881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-prayers","tag-womens-roles"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":53461,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-wrong-for-your-mom-or-sister-to-lead-prayers-at-home\/","url_meta":{"origin":30881,"position":0},"title":"Is it wrong for your mom or sister to lead prayers at home?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 14, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I know I Timothy 2:11-12 says that women cannot exercise leadership over a man nor teach him, but I'm a little confused. I've heard that this only applies in church or in schools, so some clarification on the wording would be very helpful. I ask this because my sister\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":54703,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-wrong-to-bow-during-a-prayer-offered-by-someone-who-does-not-live-a-christian-life\/","url_meta":{"origin":30881,"position":1},"title":"Is it wrong to bow during a prayer offered by someone who does not live a Christian life?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 1, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: My brother often leads prayer at family gatherings. I have a problem with this. He drinks alcohol daily, often is intoxicated, and lives a sexually immoral life. When he says, \"Let's pray,\" everyone bows their heads. My husband is always present and sometimes he does lead the prayer.\u00a0 My\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":24516,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-you-make-your-prayer-life-better\/","url_meta":{"origin":30881,"position":2},"title":"How do you make your prayer life better?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 13, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What should you do if you have been baptized and trying to live the Christian life, but your prayer life is not as it should be? You go for weeks without praying and asking God to forgive your sins. Then when you do pray for forgiveness, you never feel\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":92254,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/dont-hide-behind-your-prayers\/","url_meta":{"origin":30881,"position":3},"title":"Don\u2019t Hide Behind Your Prayers","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 19, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Clay Gentry We're called to be people of prayer. Jesus Himself taught that we \"ought always to pray and not lose heart\" (Luke 18:1). However, if we are honest, sometimes our prayers are merely a pious way of being inactive. It is easy to hide behind the sincerity of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":66225,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-proper-for-a-church-to-pray-together-silently\/","url_meta":{"origin":30881,"position":4},"title":"Is it proper for a church to pray together silently?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 28, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good day, brother Jeffery, Thanks for always answering questions. They've been helpful to me and the people around me. I want to ask you a question about the orderliness of prayer in the church. Can the church pray such that a time is given during worship, such as 10\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":41615,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-the-husband-lead-bible-discussions-and-prayers-when-the-family-is-gathered-together\/","url_meta":{"origin":30881,"position":5},"title":"Should the husband lead Bible discussions and prayers when the family is gathered together?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 18, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi, If God were to bless me with a wife and kids, I would like for the family to have Bible study sessions as a family. Would it be proper for my wife to lead the discussions at times? Or to pray? Or it should always be the husband?\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30881\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}