Praying Life

For the last three days, I have prayed constantly that David would be ok. I am not with him and I want to be. I tear up thinking about it. He loves school, is excited to tell me about phrases like, "Zip it, lock it,  Put it in your pocket," can't wait to find the hidden candy in his lunchbox and worries about being early enough to get into the line-up at the door.

I have the low down on the difficult kid, whom the teachers are always scolding, and who gets the red card for taking a "time-out." The second night David mentioned this kid, asked what David could do to help him. David started with, "You could send him to the principle." We have talked a lot about prayer lately and his prayers are things like, "God, make it stop raining and help Isaac to feel better. It is how I often pray, saying, "Help me get past this day or find extra money to pay for my $400 Costco bill." I worry that he will be disappointed or question God if his request aren't answered with the rain stopping (though last time he prayed that, it did stop.). I tell him, "God is not a robot, waiting for us to tell him what to do. Neither did he make us robots, forcing us to do what he would. Rather he wants us to choose relationships and loving, just like he did." As we talked further about the problem kid, he wanted to pray/ He asked God to show him in his dreams how he could be a friend to this kid.

The third morning, he woke said he hated school as we rushed to get there on time. I wondered if the whole conversation was too much for him. He ended up having a great day and saying the boy had a much better day. Then day four (today) as we walked to the car, he mentioned that a kid with an orange shirt and sun glasses punched him in his lower abdomen on the playground yesterday. I told him that it must be hard for that boy to live with hurting people, because of how badly we feel when we hurt others even on accident. I mentioned the incident to the teacher, who wanted to assure me they worked hard to ensure things like this didn't happen and that David should tell her next time.

So how do we pray? I can't help but love King David's way as I look over Psalm 30 & 31. David praises God, then cries for help, then talks about bad guys, then praises God for not getting too angry at him, asks God to go easy on him, mourns at life, looks to keep away from idols, talks about God as a shelter, a rock, a stronghold, prays not to fall into his own strength or neighbors pits and ultimately  prays to "see the glory of the Lord in the land of the living."

A few weeks back David mentioned a good place to pray was at church, saying he just prayed (as we walked in Knox's door). A different day I asked what God promises us and he said, "We get live with him in his house," or something to that affect. All I can think is that God is alive in the midst of this moment and I am so glad that I get to sit with David as we listen for him.