JACKSON WOMAN PLENS DAILY PRAYERS

JACKSON -- Verna Hellwig doesn't claim to be an expert on prayer; she's just experienced its benefits and blessings.

You don't have to have seminary training or a degree in religious studies to pray. It's simple enough for everyone.

"You don't have to have any special talents," she said. "I can talk to God whenever I want to."

Scriptures in the Bible say that God is to be considered a father, so having a conversation with him should be normal, Hellwig said.

Hellwig prays daily, both at the beginning and end of her day.

"I feel that prayer is essential," she said.

The Bible teaches that Christians aren't just to request things from God, but also to thank him for his care.

Hellwig has discovered that prayers can be answered and that praying about problems seems to lift the burdens from her.

"I think God answers prayer and he tells us to pray in the Bible," she said.

When Hellwig's husband, George, was ill and doctors said he wasn't likely to recover, she prayed for God to take him. "I knew that he couldn't get well."

Although her husband's death was a difficult time, prayer helped Hellwig deal with her loss.

Knowing that others were praying and that God would listen comforted her.

But prayers don't have to be only about illness and death. They can be as simple as a request for a positive test result from a doctor, she said.

When a friend was ill, Hellwig and her husband began cutting out daily prayers printed in The Arizona Republic, a newspaper they frequently read while visiting their son in Lake Havasu City.

"We cut out the prayers each day and sent them to him and he seemed to appreciate that," she said.

So when the couple returned to Jackson from their stay in Arizona, they contacted the Southeast Missourian with a suggestion for printing daily prayers.

Although her husband first suggested the idea, Verna Hellwig has been writing them for nearly two years. The prayers appear daily on the editorial page.

Although Hellwig says she's not good at praying in public, she enjoys writing the short, simple prayers for the newspaper.

Typically she writes about two months worth of prayers at a time, although she's a little behind after some recent traveling.

She often tries to write the prayers according to the seasons, like spring and fall, or centered on holiday celebrations.

Some of the prayers are inspired by other articles or scriptures she reads, Hellwig said.

"A prayer every day is better than none," she said.