It’s not always easy to know how to pray for a baby. (Other than, “O God, please let her fall asleep now.”) But it occurs to me that there’s a ready-made list that pretty much sums it all up for me.
I had a professor at the University of Michigan who wisely pointed out one day in class as we were discussing early American history, “There are two kinds of people in the world: those who believe God answers prayer, and those who don’t.” I’m one of the former. But it’s dangerous to assume that the pray-ers think the world is any simpler than the non-pray-ers do. (Perhaps quite the contrary, actually.)
Just for starters, it’s often hard to know what to pray for. This is partly because prayer shouldn’t always be about praying _for_ something. But on top of that, knowing what I really want is usually harder than advertised — let alone what God might want.
But a while back, I was watching Lucy and mulling over my hopes for her to grow as a loving and joyful and peaceful person, and all of a sudden it was obvious: “love, joy, peace….” This list was ringing a bell:
bq. [T]the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (“Gal. 5:22-23”:http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Galatians5&version=72).
These “fruits of the Spirit” really sum up what we long for (and long to contribute to) in Lucy. What a rich vision! Who wouldn’t want to know and be known by a loving Lucy — a joyful Lucy — a peaceful, peace-loving, and peace-making Lucy — a patient Lucy — a kind Lucy — a good Lucy — a faithful Lucy — a gentle Lucy — a Lucy in full command of herself. What a Lucy that would be!
So that’s what we want.
that’s cool. Also good to pray for bigger kids, for whom we sometimes presume to know how to pray. That’s better than most of my prayers for my children – thanks. :o)
I always pray that Maddy will be smart like daddy, loving like daddy, Godly and that she will out grow her rolls and stubborness (the only thing she gets from me!)
I could never be a Calvinist, because pray does work and is vital to our Christian walk.
Katrina —
I’m not sure where you heard that about Calvinism, but I bet it wasn’t from a Calvinist. :) The centrality of prayer in the Christian life is truly not something that divides Calvinists from other flavors of Christians. Here’s what John Calvin had to say on the subject: “The necessity and utility of th[e] exercise of prayer no words can sufficiently express” (_Institutes_ 3.20.2).
although they believe in double predestination (God pre-determins who is going to heaven or not) in which case I see prayer as almost not needed if you believe that. Not that then point of prayer is only to get to heaven, but it is to walk closer to God and stay in his will and in my mind to live a life of holiness ending in heaven. Yet, some are pre-chosen and some aren’t (if you are a TULIP calvinist)?
I have nothing to add to the Calvinism conversation. :)
Jon, this is a really neat way to look at prayer for a child. It’s a good reminder to pray for more than the immediate concerns (sleeping, eating, discipline, etc.). Thanks for sharing …
I learned the list of the fruits of the Spirit from a vacation Bible school that our church in Mt. Pleasant ran when my first child was a baby. It was an inane little tune, but those are the kinds that stick with you. TANGENT ALERT: Speaking of which, I woke up today with the theme song from “What’s Happenin”?” in my head. It won’t leave.
Anyway, that VBS song has stayed with me and helped me so many times in prayer, for myself, my children, and others, that I can affirm your post heartily! How much time people probably waste praying about God’s will for what jobs they should take, what their major should be, when they really need to pray for the fruits of the Spirit in their lives FIRST. Then they can go on to the more mundane areas of guidance.
Jon, am I a heretic if I believe that predestination and free will are reconciled in the choice of God to create the world with the foreknowledge that he had about what choices his creation would make? Since He knew what we would choose, then HIS choosing to create us was predestination? So predestination in that case would not just be the foreknowledge, which I always thought was a wimpy way out of the difficult passages on the subject. Surely this conversation itself is a matter for the Tangent Police, but as you can see from my sitcom digression above, I am on their Most Wanted list anyway.
and the tangent continues…i think i hear sirens…
ha! ann & jon, bet you didn’t think your blog would be a magnet for heretics, now did you?
i have no idea how people end up choosing god or being chosen by god. it sounds like one big headache, if you ask me.
i’ll admit i used to believe what deb wrote above. but i guess if you think about it, that argument gets a bit circular.
can i be the universalist who believes in hell here? i’m being tongue-in-cheek, but not totally.
now back to the topic of prayer. i have to say that i pray a lot more (you can’t pray much less than NEVER..) since i had cadence. the whole experience of becoming a mother has made plain to me the fact that i am SO not in control of the universe, although i’d like to believe i am (confession: i used to think i could control the weather). now that i have the wellbeing of this beautiful creature known as my daughter to think about, i cannot but pray.
i like using the fruits of the spirit as a guide for praying. i’ll have to reaquaint myself with what they are.