Pray for Me

I know it's been a while since I've posted. I had complete and total holiday overload. You see, in addition to Christmas and New Year we celebrated my daughter's 3rd birthday last month. It made for a busy time, but it was all more than worth it. In honor of Avari's birthday, I thought I'd start my first post of the new year with a story that just took place today.

Avari is vivacious. She is full of life and is passionate about everything. Sometimes I would like to deny all culpability, but I'm pretty sure that she got that from me (at least according to everything my dad tells me). All her activity makes for a busy day for me, and I love every minute of it. However, there is a time of day that is held sacred in the Partin household. I like to refer to it as "The Hour of Sanity." It is probably more commonly known as nap time.

This afternoon I put Avari down for her nap, and I proceeded to fold the Mount Everest of laundry atop my bed. I gave her a little while to settle down but continued to hear her in her room as we have yet to dispense with the baby monitor (hey, it comes in handy!). The noises emanating from her room sounded vaguely like those that indicate she is jumping on her bed, so I, fearing a broken bed and having no funds to replace it, went to stop the insanity.

As I rounded the corner into her room, she sat on her knees in the corner of her bed with her head down. I'm pretty certain that's how she landed after the last jump prior to my entry. However, I quickly issued orders for her to lay down and go to sleep. She folded her hands meekly and said, "But, I'm praying for you, Mama." I calmly informed her that she can pray just as easily laying down as kneeling and asked her to do so.

I know, cute, huh? It's also the most devious thing she's done to date. Well, it probably is tied with her shoving her empty fruit bowl off the table this afternoon and claiming it fell off by itself. If she was praying for me, I'm a super model standing tall at 5'11" and weighing 110 lbs. Let me guarantee you that I stand no taller than 5'1", and that's on a good day. We won't even discuss weight this soon after the holidays. In any case, her comment got me thinking.

It really brought up one of those pet peeves we are all so fond of. Well, one of my pet peeves is for someone to express the need for prayer and the respondent says, "I'll be praying about that." I sometimes ponder about the ratio of promised prayer to actual prayer. It's so easy to say you are going to pray about something and not actually pray. Now, we all have good intentions, I'm sure. I've been guilty of pledging to pray only to have it slip my mind.

I've found that there is a very simple solution to this problem though. No, it is not to tie a string around your finger to remind you. Wrong again if you guessed the answer to be leaving a note for yourself. The best way I've found to circumvent my penchant for lack of follow through on prayer is to stop right then and there when the request is made and pray. You don't have to make a big show of it. There's no need for the use of a televangelist voice or any kind of hoopla. Simply offer to pray with them on the spot.

Not only does it let your friend, acquaintance, family member know that you are sincere in your desire to pray, it also means that you won't forget to pray. In my experience, praying immediately also reminds me to pray later.

I know there will always be those times when we cannot stop immediately and pray; however, more often than not, we can. In my own life I know that a prayer now means so much more than 10 promised prayers down the road. It eases my mind and brings me peace to know that my need or concern has been lifted up to Papa by someone who knows and cares enough to take a couple of minutes to pray with me and for me.

So, if you take nothing else away from this I hope it at least reminds you how important our prayers are. Now, I suppose I need to go refold the laundry. Cinderella (a.k.a. Avari), uses her socks for "long, long gloves," which are, of course, the staple of every princess's ensemble. For me it mostly translates to the fact that I have to fold many, many socks each day.

Blessings!