Building Spiritual Life Together
Children who know they are loved, know they have a purpose, and know they have a hope are prepared for anything this world wants to dish up.
Tim Kimmel
f you have so much business to attend to that you have no time to pray, depend upon it, you have more business on hand than God ever intended you should have.
D. L. Moody Why is it that sublime intentions often wind up looking ridiculous in reality? Even the noblest intentions of a vital devotional life can wind up looking like tragi-comedy. Consider this pastor's description of the bedtime prayer routine: With all the defiance of a mongrel whelp, my 4-year-old son stared me down and issued his answer: "No!" For the past four bedtimes, young John had become increasingly obstinate about praying. "You're going to pray if I have to wait here all night!" I heard myself utter this benign threat and had to wonder who let the crazy man in. What had happened to the wisdom of a hundred seminars on child rearing? But if John could play his role, I was going to get an Oscar for mine. "John, sit up and tell me what you want to pray for." John ignored me, and I panicked. Here I was, a pastor, a family counselor, a cherisher of boyhood memories, a crusader for handling children the right way. My jaw was tight, my lip curled, and above those was a top about to blow. (Would God enter the scene with a pearl of wisdom or at least an off-stage prompt? Apparently not. So I improvised.) "John, you always pray. Isn't there someone you would like to pray for?" (John pretends he is asleep.) "John, Jesus likes it when you talk to him." (John emerges from Slumberland just long enough to yawn like a crevice.) "John, I want you to pray right now." (John instantly turns onto his stomach.) "Do you want Daddy to get ...
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