Prayer

On Sunday's we normally just go to church service and go home, but they have had a parenting Sunday school class for adults that has been amazing the past 6 or 7 weeks or so. This past week was about prayer and just how important it is to pray to God. For those of you who may not know us well, Jeff and I have a love and passion for Jesus Christ and will be raising our son Cale to know about Jesus and all that He stands for-with dying on the cross for our sins, and making the ultimate sacrifice. Prayer has sometimes been a confusing thing for me. I think to the verse in Psalm-"Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart" or the verse in James I believe that talks about praying for the sick that they might be healed. Well, when I hear verses like that I think ok, if I know someone who is really sick and I pray for them, then they will most surely be healed or if I pray about something I may get it. I think sometimes we miss the true point of prayer and it kind of hit me on Sunday. I have many of friends that have suffered loss in their lives or are going through loss right now or dealing with an illness, loss of job, etc. and I really do pray for them daily-pray for healing and restoration. But the answer I get is not always what I think it's going to be. For example, I am going to use my dear friend Kathy here who has found out she has a stage 3 brain tumor. When I found this out I weeped and weeped and was full of such sorrow and concern for her. She means the world to me as a friend and mentor. I haven't had the chance to see her yet, but keep up with her on her caringbridge blog. She has this beautiful amazing Spirit and has seen God work through this tumor in ways that would have never been possible had she not had it. I am not saying that God gave her the tumor, more so what I think is God is using a situation to draw Kathy closer to Him and others that don't know Him. It's amazing to see. I don't think our God is a God that sits up there and says, this family is going to lose a child, or this person is going to get cancer, or this person is going to lose a job. I honestly think we live in a fallen world and because of sin there are things that happen, but I can say that God can use any situation for His glory. I've seen it in my life and in those of the ones around me in my life. Prayer is an amazing thing where God can heal and bring restoration, but that doesn't always look like the healing (like of a disease) or restoration that we may think of. I think about our sweet baby Cale and how innocent he is right now and just how the real world is not always the nicest of worlds to live in. All Jeff and I can do is pray for him and trust that our Lord knows our sweet angel boy and adores and loves him and just prayer for Cale as he journeys and juggles his own way through life and walk beside him instilling our values and beliefs into him along the way and trust that the Lord will take care of the rest and will work through Cale and the lives he touches. Oh sweet boy-I cannot wait to see where the Lord will take you on this journey of life, to walk with you, to guide you, to love you, to support you, to prayer with you and for you-it's going to be sometimes sad, sometimes mad, sometimes glad, but mostly a joyous amazing journey!