Shortly before school ended for the summer, I was standing on the playground with a fellow mom. Our kids had become friends and we struck up a conversation while they played.
I mentioned to her that my son prayed for her son every day. She said that her oldest recently told her how he had prayed for something, which she thought was sweet, especially since she doesn’t really pray.
I paused momentarily. We were standing there together, at a Christian school, where she had sent two of her kids, but she didn’t pray? I was so deeply saddened at the thought of trying to do life without prayer.
It was almost unimaginable to me because prayer is such an integral part of my life. I would think that there would be either a strong sense of self-reliance or a strong sense of hopelessness without prayer.
Though my youngest doesn’t always want to pray, I gently encourage him to do so. One morning, he prayed for me and he prayed that I would have a good day at school. It was an incredibly powerful prayer because of what it made me realize.
I don’t go to school. However, I realized that he prayed I would have a good day at school because he has heard me pray that for him. He was repeating what he was hearing! Why is that so powerful? Because it proves he is actually listening! 😊
Many times, I wonder if my kids really do hear me. My little guy’s prayer proved that he does (at least at times). This realization inspired me to pray more often, out loud, for my children, so they hear me.
Whether we are parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, or mentors, we have such a precious opportunity to model a life of prayer for those around us. Let us pray, and pray often, and out loud, for the younger generation.
Do you know what this will do? It will teach them to pray. It will show them how. Do you remember when the disciples asked Jesus how to pray? That’s where we see the Lord’s Prayer in Scripture.
It will be one more way to demonstrate love to them. It will show them that you put your faith and hope in God, not in yourself. It will help develop a life-changing habit in their lives. It will help connect them to God.
As I think about that mom on the playground, I not only lift up her son in prayer, I pray for the whole family.
As we pray today and, in the days to come, may we also lift up the families who lost their loved ones, including many children, in the horrible school shooting in Texas. Life is so very short. Let us pray without ceasing as the Bible instructs.
We serve a big God, the only true God, and if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.
May He hear from us a lot and may He hear a lot of us. Let us go be radiant this week.
Go Be Radiant 