WMUR: CONCORD, N.H. During the school year, Lizarda Urena, the mother of two students, prayed out loud on the steps of the school as students walked in. Urena said she had a calling in 2011 to fight school violence with prayer, so she started praying on the steps of the auditorium between 7 and 7:15…

There is nothing wrong with praying…I prayed every day before my classes started in my classroom alone, and sometimes when my class was full of students. No one knew I was praying but GOD. What is in question is the way the lady was praying. She prayed out loud on the steps as students walked in. This disrupts the orderly process of students entering the school. We should also make sure that we are not praying like the Pharisees prayed.

The Pharisees did many things, but they didn’t get anything out of it (Matthew 6:1-8) “take heed that you do not your alms before men, to be seen of them; otherwise you have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.  Therefore when you do your alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men.  Verily I say to you, they have their reward.  But when you do alms, let not your left hand know what your right hand does.  That your alms may be in secret, and your Father which sees in secret Himself shall reward you openly.  And when you pray, you shall not be as the hypocrites are, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men.  Verily I say to you, they have their reward.  But you, when you pray enter into your closet, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father which is in secret, and your Father which sees in secret shall reward you openly. You don’t have to put on a show to get GOD’S attention.