What I Learned About Prayer That I Learned From My Kids

I finally laid my head down last night, exhausted.  Fridays are Field-Trip-With-Daddy Day.  To give the wife a break, I take the kids out of the house on some new journey - to the Battleship, Fire Station, Starbucks (YES!); any place as long as it is away from Mamma!

I guess this is the age when they want EVERYTHING!  It is almost as if they are constantly hungry, thirsty or deprived of some toy.  Oh...and don't let one ask for something around the other!  If one gets it, the other looks with an envious eye and says, "Daddy...can I have that too?"  Amazing.  Frustrating.  Exhausting.  Seriously, I don't know how you people do it (Mommies, that is)!

No joke, these kids were asking for something every 5 minutes (on average).  Some asking-streaks had to be record-breaking.  We were at the coffee shop.  I ordered everything on the menue it seems (I had a Groupon) - ice cream for Emma, a cookie for Jude, a muffin for me.  But then Jude heard that Emma was getting something that he wasn't getting..."Daddy, I want ice cream too."  "Can I have gummy bears on it?"

Some guy after us ordered a piece of cake.  Jude says, "Daddy, I want cake."  As I tried to gather all of my edible merchandise, it was all I could do to keep them from finding something new to want.  Then Jude needed to go potty.  Amazing.  Impeccable timing.

So there I was, at the end of the day, laying on the bed.  The kids were finally asleep.  After saying a small prayer asking for God to give me more patience with my children, He spoke to me.

It was not an audible voice; but it reached a deeper part of me than any voice ever could.  A new vision of my Lord overwhelmed me.  I have only three children.  He has millions (if not more).  I spent the day wishing my children would stop asking me for things.  He eternally lives longing for His children to ask Him for everything! (Matt 7:7)

He never sleeps.  He never gets tired of giving.  He is never frustrated by the simplest requests.  He graciously corrects our selfish and envious desires.  And even when He does, He never ceases giving!  He never ignores us!  We never have to call his name ten times before he responds, "What?!"

He answers the first time, every time!  Even when we fail to ask, He considers that asking - and He gives accordingly!  He is God.  He is our giving, hearing, patient, faithful, merciful, gracious, and loving Father.

He is holy other than I am.  And yet, He saved me.  He lives in me.  He changed me yesterday, knowing exactly what I needed even before I asked.  I don't have bad kids.  They were doing exactly what they were supposed to do.  I learned that I should be more hesitant to discourage their practice of asking.  

Yesterday, I learned what it means to ask Daddy for things.