Recently, our little girl taught me an important lesson prayer.
One night, just before her bedtime, it was time for milk. As usual, she had to pray before having her milk. After we prayed the usual thanksgiving prayer, I was expecting her to start drinking. But, instead of drinking, she started naming the people she would like to pray for. (She usually indicates this by putting her hands together and giving a name/title of the person)...
So well.. she started with "gong1 (my dad)", then "po2 (my mum)", then "pop2 (my aunt)", then "ahyi (my sis)", then "didi (her little bro)", the "mama" and so on..... Wow, with every person she named, she wanted one prayer said.. well, initially, I did as she requested, but as I realised the list went longer and longer.. I started getting a little impatient. I was thinking, "Girl, it's time for bed, you are late for bedtime...." I think I actually did try to rush her a little...but for a moment, I was reminded by the Holy Spirit that I should not be impatient at all.
As a parent, I should be teaching her to pray unceasingly... even if the prayers affect her bedtime... even if it means spending another 10, 15 minutes... I should never ever attempt to stop her from praying or even give her any notion that prayers should stop at some point.
Oh my, I felt so guilty when I displayed my impatience.. So eventually, I went on and on with her... for a while.. .that did not take too long really, but I learnt such a precious lesson and was truly humbled.
I was reminded of this verse in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
"Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus."
Do we pray continually? Are we always tempted to place a time limit on the time spent on prayer?
A side point, this little girl is rather interesting. She has this principle at home, when Papa is at home, he MUST always pray with her during her meals and when she has her milk (sometimes this principle also extends to her bedtime). It's such a huge principle that there were times when I tried to flout the rule by taking over that role out of convenience, and she will insist by calling loudly, "PAPA"... haha :) Basically, wherever papa is, he must drop all that he is doing and take the time to say the prayer... interesting huh :) We find that so intriguing.
3 comments:
She seems to hold prayer in a high place in her life. That is a good power to have at such a young age. (assuming she is very young)
I know prayer works for people. But for some reason, I've rarely seen my prayers answered. Not that I don't believe in God or prayer. I just tend to believe that prayer is more of a personal thing to help us feel better... and not some cosmic power that will give us whatever we ask for.
But like I said, for a little girl to have such a strong belief in prayer, she will see many miracles in her life.. simply because she believes.
I wish I had that innocence still. :)
I wish my son would be excited about prayer. He wiggles and eats the whole way through it.
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