On children, prayer and little blessings.

Last Saturday we had a little birthday party for my son who had just turned 4 years old. It was a proud day for me but my favorite moment was easily a few hours earlier in the day before everyone else arrived. It had rained hard for most of the previous day and the weather was looking equally overcast and grim again. But by Saturday morning the rain had temporarily subsided and the two of us had gone for a little walk. I felt a peace from God about the weather so I told Danny that we should pray to God to make the sun come out for his party and then thank Him when the clouds go away. It was not 5 minutes after we prayed that the sun came out so strongly that it even dried the grass up for us. The party went off well and the kids all had a great day. I later learned that it had rained a few kilometers on either side of our place that afternoon while we experienced nothing more than a bit of cloud cover once in a while. It’s a simple story and some might not think much of it but I was grateful for the opportunity to share something simple about God and prayer with my son on his special day. I was reminded of what it says in Deuteronomy 6:5-7

“You shall love the Lord with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength. And these words which I commanded you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down and when you rise up”.

As these words have been swirling around in my head over the last few days I have been more sensitive to seizing opportunities to share little spiritual tidbits with my kids throughout the day and not relying so much on their story books and whatever else they may pick up from observing the adults during our Sunday gatherings. As it is written, train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it.