Altered Prayers

Yesterday I wrote in my blog about my altars of remembrance. After Christmas this year, I just couldn’t make myself take down the little Christmas angels in red even though they don’t match my decor at all! They are just too cute!

So –  I left them on the back of the potty. I call the sculpture – my potty prayer reminder. I put the little toy soldier I had kept in the medicine cabinet in front of them. Every time I looked at the scene, I said a prayer and envisioned myself adorned with all my glorious, spiritual armor fighting battles for my daughters. I have been selfishly praying for them to have nothing in their lives that will damage them or even annoy them.

Until today. As I started to pray, I was stopped in my tracks. If I pray that nothing challenges them, how will they grow their spiritual muscles? If everything is smooth sailing, how will they learn that God will keep them in the storms of life?

I’ve been told I can come up with a song to address every issue, and this is no exception.

The famous Andrea Crouch wrote a very poignant song, Through It All.  “I thank God for the mountains, and I thank Him for the valleys, I thank Him for the storms He brought me through. For if I’d never had a problem, I wouldn’t know God could solve them, I’d never know what faith in God could do. Through it all, through it all, I’ve learned to trust in Jesus, I’ve learned to trust in God. Through it all, through it all, I’ve learned to depend upon His Word.”

Wow! What a revelation for me! I must not pray that my girls won’t have any problems. My prayers must be that they will come to a stronger faith as they daily fight life’s battles. I will pray that they constantly feel God’s peace more strongly in their lives. I will pray they feel God’s leading and understand His will for them more clearly each day.

I will continue to pray and intercede for them. Instead of wanting to fight every battle for them, I will pray they know I am fighting with them. I will be praying they become mighty warriors and become the powerful women of God that He intends them to become.

So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold – though your faith is far more precious that mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.       1 Peter 1:6,7

Blessings

KB