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 mentioned 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 mentioned to me, “I nonetheless say that prayer. It makes me really feel secure.”
Secure. Is that what prayer is for? Proverbs 1:33 says, “however he who listens to me will dwell safe / and will probably be relaxed, with out dread of evil.”
Right now, we are sometimes known as “helicopter dad and mom,” as a result of we would like so badly to maintain our children secure. We hover and hold watch and are virtually afraid to allow them to out of our sight. I feel we overlook concerning the security of prayer. We all know that prayer doesn’t assure a life with out troubles or tragedies. If that have been true, then martyrdom can be an enormous contradiction.
Praying doesn’t shield our kids from all hurt, nor does it even hold 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 concern is what retains us from being helicopters and retains our kids free too.