A Child's Prayers

I asked the children to update their prayer jars this morning. Few things bless me more than their prayers.

The last time we updated their jars, Peter put in a prayer asking God to provide money for us to visit our Compassion children. It surfaced a few weeks after I told the boys a story from the Compassion blog, detailing one sponsor's visit. We kept praying it all these weeks, and then yesterday we got a Compassion e-mail telling us that an El Salvador sponsor trip is scheduled for October, 2012, costing $2,650 per person for the entire 7-day trip. It could be just a coincidence, but we all wonder what God is up to. Could we be so blessed? It would take a miracle for even one of us to go, but we know He is big enough. May it be so, Lord!

We recently received a pamphlet telling us more about Nelson, our 7-year-old child who lives in El Salvador. Gangs and violence are a major problem where he lives, and many children fall into this lifestyle in exchange for regular meals. Nelson has no father in his life, so it would be such a blessing for my husband to go and speak Life and Love into Nelson's heart.

A child's prayers come straight from the Holy Spirit. I strongly believe this!

Peter

- That animals will come to my shelter (he made a lean-to with wood boards so birds, squirrels, and chipmunks can get out of the rain and snow).

- That Joey at AWANA will become a Christian.

- Bless the church teachers and keep them from getting sick.

- That my leaves will make compost quickly.

- For Jayden's father to be a good Christian father.

- Please help Matt and his family find a church they are comfortable with.

Mary


- Please help Raphael to have good meals and have a good night's sleep with no bad dreams.

- Please help Divya to have nice dreams and wake up to a lovely morning and have a bow for her hair.

- Please help Nelson to have a nice bed and a TV to watch movies and enough food until we can visit them.

- Please help Divya, Raphael, and Nelson to become Christians and know Jesus.

- Please help them to have a nice house with lights.

Paul


- For discernment for our family member and for her boyfriend to become a Christian

- For the AWANA father with the unsafe job to come home safely every night.

- For Jayden to stop using the computer late into the night and for his Dad to stop too. (A little boy at AWANA told Paul that he and his dad were playing a computer game until 2 in the morning. The mother was very mad at the father about it. I don't know if our boys completely understood the tragedy in this, but husband and me found it profoundly sad. Computer-game addiction is very powerful for those involved. We are losing a lot of good men to it.)

- Please bless the new Pastor at the AWANA church. Bless his ministry.

Children have so much to teach us! I pray that we mothers, despite floors needing sweeping and laundry needing folding, stop to really know their hearts--to speak life and love into them. It feels good when laundry's caught up, but what could be better than a child's heart seeking Him? There's no comparing that joy to anything. We must daily die to ourselves to separate the eternal from the temporal.

God has us in our homes all day not to be housekeepers, but to be heartkeepers.

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