Go For It

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I tucked my daughter in bed and she said, “Mommy you did not pray with me at bedtime.” I said, “When?” She said, “At bedtime.” I was puzzled. This is bedtime and I was still here in the room. Was she assuming I was about to leave without praying (which I was, but she did not know that).

In my defense, please know that I had been traveling the 2 nights prior to this particular night, so that’s why I had not prayed with her recently. I wasn’t home. Rather than get defensive and argue my point with a 3-year-old, I decided to simply say, “Well, Olivia, I am here now and it is again bedtime, so we can pray now.” She held my hand and went for it!

She must have had 1 Thessalonians 5:17 on her mind.

“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers explains this passage by saying “though [we] cannot be incessantly praying in words, the mind may be held continuously in an attitude of prayer, even in sleep.”

Olivia noticed the ceasing this passage warns against. Her pattern had been broken. With bedtime comes prayer time. She wasn’t interested in all the reasons that had kept me from praying with her the past few nights. All she knew is that she’d had some “bedtimes” that did not involve prayer. So she did something about it.

Have you had some “bedtimes” that did not involve prayer? I’m referring to that time of day when its dark and you need the Light to see your way. I’m referring to that time of day when you decide to have a conversation with Jesus in order that your relationship with Him may be nurtured. I’m referring to that time of day when you open His Word and desire His wisdom to apply its counsel.

What do you do when you notice a ceasing of that time of day?  Do you do something about it?  Well, you are here now and it is again prayer time. Go for it!

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