“Will You Pray for Me Again?”

God will use even the smallest of incidents in our lives to bring glory to himself if we will just be obedient to him. Of course, there are no “small incidents” in the divine plan of God. They may seem like insignificant happenings to us. God uses them in profound ways to teach us lessons of faith and in the process glorify his name.

I was again reminded of that not long ago. Our youngest daughter had a friend over on Friday night. They wanted to go across the street to visit with a friend. “Why not?” I thought to myself. It was almost 10:30 p.m., but after all, it was Friday night, and they wouldn’t be gone long.

Close to an hour passed. Assuming (almost invariably a major mistake for the father of four teenagers!) they were back home, I went upstairs to check on the girls. That’s when my oldest daughter informed me they were not home.

With just a little bit of anger in my step and a twinge of panic in my voice, I muttered to myself, as I walked to our neighbors, how you just can’t depend on young teenagers to get back on time! (Is it any better when they are “old” teenagers?) When my neighbor groggily answered the door, I knew I might have a problem. They had been asleep and “No, your girls are not here.”

Now my anger is boiling, and my panic buttons are all lit up in red. It is unfortunately, time to call momma to the scene of the crime. So, with visions of calling the police and reporting two missing girls, Lori and I cruise the neighborhood at midnight, searching for two little girls who are on my delinquent list.

It is only a few minutes before the discovery is made: they are at the end of the street, visiting with two other girl-friends from a near-by neighborhood. Case closed. “All’s well that ends well.”

Well, not exactly. We had this small matter of disobedience that scared a couple of months from the life of mom and dad. What to do with these two wanderers?

What I did was march them (well, maybe they didn’t really march, but they at least walked fast) upstairs for a little chat on the dangers of being out “anywhere” at midnight without parents knowing their whereabouts. Then, after that conversation, I did what I do for my four children every night.  I prayed for them. Lori joined and prayed too, as she always does.  No big deal, right? Just a prayer.

A few weeks ago the same little girl spent the night again. No, they didn’t go out visiting at midnight. Yes, they were well-behaved. Well, mostly. 

But our guest hadn’t been there long when she asked, “Will you pray for me again?”

“What?” I asked. “You mean, pray for the two of you like I did before you went to bed?”

“Yes, exactly,” she said. “When I got home after I visited here last time, I was so excited about prayer that I asked my mom for a prayer journal, and I’ve been praying now.”

I just stood there dumbfounded. I never dreamed praying for two giggly, teenage girls who had gotten in a bit of trouble, would have had that effect. But it did, because you see, when we will just slow down, and do what God has told us to do, he will allow us the privilege of influencing others in positive ways that exceed our small-frame minds.

“Always pray and don’t give up,” the Bible teaches us in Luke 18:1. Yes, it’s true. Whatever your situation, keep praying and don’t give up. Somebody is asking, even if only within themselves, “Will you pray for me again?”