Once I was writing The Prayer Record, I requested our daughters (now adults) what they remembered about household prayer from their childhoods. Ellen promptly responded by reciting the prayer we most frequently stated collectively at bedtime:
There are 4 corners on my mattress.
There are 4 angels spherical my head.
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,
Bless this mattress that I lay on.
Ellen stated to me, “I nonetheless say that prayer. It makes me really feel protected.”
Protected. Is that what prayer is for? Proverbs 1:33 says, “however he who listens to me will dwell safe / and shall be comfortable, with out dread of evil.”
At present, we are sometimes known as “helicopter mother and father,” as a result of we would like so badly to maintain our children protected. We hover and preserve watch and are nearly afraid to allow them to out of our sight. I believe we neglect in regards to the security of prayer. We all know that prayer doesn’t assure a life with out troubles or tragedies. If that had been true, then martyrdom can be an enormous contradiction.
Praying doesn’t shield our kids from all hurt, nor does it even preserve them alive. What Proverbs 1:33 says is that prayer—particularly, listening to God—will ease our fears and raise us out of dread. And that freedom from worry is what retains us from being helicopters and retains our kids free too.
