I just heard that Whitney Houston, Legendary pop singer just pasted away she was only 48 years of age. Now I understand her lifestyle and we all have different life-styles. But what I never heard and thought it was very insulting when an Apostle states, “what a wasted prayer” What does that mean?

This reminds me of the Shiva, question about how he felt about all the tefillos that people davened for Whitney that were apparently ignored, or shall I say she ignored the unction of Most High G-d and He says "No".

Parents can somewhat relate to that answer. On the one hand, we always want to give our children whatever they ask for. At the same time though, we know that there are just some things that would be detrimental for them to have. The child gets upset when their request is denied, and it even may break our heart to see the children cry, but adults see a greater picture.

We cannot understand G-ds ways. Often we daven for things and our request is denied or just delayed.  While it seems like we are not getting what we want, it may very well be that G-d, our parent, is protecting us from what we do not realize.

I ask you this even if this theory is correct and sometimes G-d knows that No is the best answer, what happens to those tefillos? Are they wasted? G-d wants what is best for us but do the tefillos get thrown out the window?

In Hebrew, the word for prayer is tefilah. What does the word tefilah mean? There are two translations that are literal and accurate. The word tefilah comes from the word pellel which means "to judge." Tefilah is a time of self-evaluation, self-judgment, introspection, when a person takes the time to focus on himself and goes within himself to see what it is that he needs, what it is that he is all about, what are his faults, what are his qualities, what is it that he needs from G-d, and why should G-d give it to him. This self-assessment process happens through tefilah.

So therefore there is no such thing as a wasted tefilla. (Prayer)  Even if G-d has good reason to not respond affirmatively to our request, he saves that prayer and those tears for a future time that we may need them. For example, if there is a tragedy developing that we do not know about that had we known about it, we would have davened very meaningfully to stop it, then G-d pulls out some old tefillos and applies it to that moment.

There is no such thing as a wasted tefilla. (Prayer) Very often when we are trudging through the routine of davening, we feel like a particular tefilla is not such a big deal. If we are not in the best mood to daven, we will just go through the motions to be able to say that we did it, without adding any emotion or fire. Who knows if we may be missing the opportunity to make a deposit in our tefilla banks which we, our children, our people or our world may need at a later date?

In that that note, we don’t know what the Houston family is going through. So what, this means she was special, and she was called, or divinely protected? At least no more than anyone else is. What I am trying to say, is that in spite of bad things that have happened to Whitney, and there have been some really bad things that have happened, I also see very clearly the hand of God's guidance as well. The biggest difference is that Whitney turned over her life to God but fell later on. Just as when you get into your car, you pray to God that he helps you to drive safely and that others around you do the same. That does not mean you should disregard using your seat belt and drive with reckless abandon. I am trying to point out, that the walk that Whitney Houston had was perhaps planted by God with more good people for her to find than perhaps others might have had. Friends that she counts as family even to this day. People who have her back, who stuck with her and I’m pretty sure she stick with them too. Whitney was walking as an emotionally confused crippled Christian to one who could  had walk upright and hopefully more clearly showed the light of Christ to others.  At the beginning of her career the songs she would sing and her voice…. Oh my G-d!!  Same like her aunt Dionne Warwick that great song Will You (Still) Love Me Tomorrow?

In my ending, “Want to help Change the world? Change yourself with prayer and pray for another as well” Now that you know what to do, do it and do it well with Love.

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