prayer /prer/ noun: a solemn request for help or expression of thanks addressed to God

Ray teaching Levin to pray

Now I lay me down to sleep

I pray the Lord my soul to keep . . .

I have heard and said thousands of prayers. I remember one night when Ande was a teenager and came to crawl in bed with me for a few minutes before Calvin came to bed. We both kneeled to say our prayers. When I finished I whispered, “Ande. Are you done yet?”

She whispered back, “No.”

Remembering something I hadn’t said, I asked, “Would you tell Him something for me?”

She whispered louder, “I think He’s probably heard enough from you today.”  She was probably right.

Sometimes our children, before they had children, considered me an over-pray-er. Now they know for themselves that prayer is a powerful alliance in parenting and you can’t overdo it.

I remember one of Cali’s prayers when she was a little girl. She was only three and I had asked her to go to the deep, dark, damp basement to get some oranges. Pretty soon I heard her talking in the other room,

“Heavenly Father . . . I’m not sayin’ my prayers, I’m just askin’ you somethin’ . . . could you help me go downstairs and get some oranges for my mom? Thank you for helping me.”

Cali went down into the basement and brought back several oranges into the kitchen. She gave them to me and then went down for another load. After she gave me the second batch she said, “Heavenly Father’s tired now,” but not before she had learned that she could count on Him. That’s one of the things that mothers pray for, that their children will know and understand that there is a Father in Heaven who hears and answers prayers.

Thirty years later Cali was fretting about the stress of keeping her own little boys safe from harm.  Ande wrote a note, "I finally turned it over.  I prayed and said, 'You want them to explore and learn AND be adults, and you want me to be sane?  Send angels."

God answers prayers.  All of them.

"Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord." -- Psalm 33