A Parent's Prayer of Abandonment

Well, "Family Prayer Time" didn't go quite as planned again tonight. Andy preferred to read his Bible, Maggie was avidly reading one of the many toy catalogues we've been receiving since, oh, August, and Susie decided to make a game of screaming at increasingly loud levels. After one particularly ear-shattering shriek, I picked her up and moved her into the other room. I could've forced Andy and Maggie to attend to prayer, but somehow it seems counterproductive to a spirit of loving self-giving when you have to use your raised "I AM ABOUT TO LOSE IT" voice.

So, it was down to Marie and me. As we huddled on the couch, I prayed a prayer that I find myself praying all too often: "Help me, God, to be a good parent to these children; give me the wisdom and courage and charity to do what needs to be done. I need your help, because obviously I can't do it on my own!"

Kind of a sad prayer, but Saint Paul reminds us that "boasting" of our weakness to God is our greatest strength: "Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought" (Romans 8:26) and "I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me" (2 Cor 12:9).

Praying with St. Anthony

St. Anthony must like kids...or at least my kids, because it seems as though they always find whatever they are praying for. (Not so for me.) Once their aunt called long-distance to ask them to pray for a lost wedding ring. They did, and five minutes later, she called to say she'd found it--in a huge load of laundry.

This morning, 7-year-old Andy couldn't find his coin purse. This was a big deal, since he planned to use his money to buy himself hot lunch. (We're too cheap and too wary of school food to shell out for hot lunches ourselves. $2.50 a day! Back in our day....) He looked and looked, but it was only after praying for help that he found it. (He reports having mashed potatoes and some unspecified meat.)

I am of two minds about praying to find lost items, especially with kids. On one hand, I don't want to inculcate a "magical" understanding of God in my kids--i.e., prayer as a way to magically get what you couldn't get otherwise. Nor do I want them to have an understanding of God as fast-food clerk ("Here to serve you, your way, 24/7!")

On the other hand, God seems to be leading the way here. They pray, God gives them what they want...who am I to interfere? We have been careful to place all of these "lost and found" prayers in context: "You know, we don't always get what we want when we pray. God is not magic or a machine; God is like a friend or a parent. He always gives us whatever is best for us." Sometime in the future God may lead them to a more relational prayer life. But for now, something tells me he delights in their simple faith.