Praying with a child

Over the past year or so, we've had a lot of family needs that have really helped us put prayer and faith into action... and all in front of Caleb.  Some of the prayers are answered within days.  Some of the prayers are repeated for months and months before we see His answer.  Some of the prayers we are still waiting to see His answer.  All this to say that Caleb is consistently hearing us pray for the same people/situations, day after day, month after month.  At times he hears a name and tells us to pray for them right then.  He has stopped playing, and asked me to "pray mommy!"  and then holds his hands together in prayer, waiting for me to start.  Even in the midst of our nightly prayers, if he thinks I'm forgetting something or someone, he will repeat the suggestion over and over until I speak it out loud in prayer.  He's quite persistent. 

But he's learning to pray.

He's also learning God hears us when we pray AND God answers us when we pray.  We often remind him of the times God has answered our prayers in the affirmative and brought healing.  He knows that we prayed for Daddy's foot to be healed for months and now Daddy's foot has "no booboos"!  He knows that we prayed for Mawmaw's back and tummy to get better and that now she doesn't "huwt" (aka hurt).  We prayed for God to heal Caleb's liver and now it's perfectly normal!  Maybe TMI, but when constipated, we pray for God to help him "go potty" and then are sure to remind him how God answered that prayer too.  We repeat these praises with Caleb again and again. 

He's learning.  And honestly, in emphasizing these things over and over with Caleb, I'm being reminded that God really does answer our prayers.  All the time.  Every time. 

He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him.                                                               Psalm 91:15

How often do we pray something... and then a week or a month later forget that prayer and don't even pay attention when He answers?  We may think "That's great! He got a job!" but we forget that it was on our prayer list a month ago (or in my case even a week ago).  We don't stop to recognize that God did in fact answer our prayer.  Ok, maybe I'm the only one. But it's certainly true for me.  If I don't even realize that He answered the prayer, I'm certainly not thanking Him for answering. 

But teaching Caleb is reminding me what a privilege it is to be a child of God, to have a God that listens to us when we pray, and to thank Him for answering.

This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him                                                             1 John 5:14-15