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As a parent, you have the biggest responsibility ever given to a human being, which is raising your children. It’s not an easy job and no one gets it done perfectly. I thought for sure when you became a parent, along with getting a birth certificate for your child, also came the perfect parent playbook for parent-winning strategies! If they did give those out, well, they must have run out of them when I became a father! I am 100% sure I did not bring one of those home with me from the hospital.
When I look back at raising my kids there are a few moments that really stick out at me. Some of those I will be sharing as I believe they have something to offer. Some stories…well…they are just funny things to me. If I wrote about them, you might not get past the first paragraph because you probably wouldn’t find them all that entertaining. Those stories I won’t bore you with, so, no worries. But a few stories, I believe, are worth telling, and here is one of them.
My son is my youngest child (I have two older daughters). When he was a child, maybe 6 or 7 years old, I would put him to bed every night and we had a routine. We would talk for a moment, pray together, and then I would put on some Christian music for him to fall asleep to. One night I thought it would be beneficial to take our routine a bit further. I wanted to give our prayers to God more of a purpose. I feel weird stating it that way. I am a God-fearing man and there is always a purpose for praying to God, but sadly sometimes our prayers can be just routine. So, on this night, we were going to take it up a notch! I was going to try and teach my son something special!
When it was time for bed, I called out to my son, and we marched up to his bedroom. He jumped in his bed and I knelt by his bedside as I always did. I said to him, “Hey buddy, tonight I think we should do something a little different. I think we should think of someone in particular to pray for. I know we pray to God, but I think we should focus our prayers on one person and pray for them specifically.” My son had no problems with this and in a weird way, he looked totally prepared. I would go first as I always started us off. Since I knew I would be bringing this up, I already knew who I would be praying for. I have an uncle who I consider like a brother. He is my dad’s youngest brother and has struggled with alcohol throughout his life. So, it was a no-brainer that I would be praying for him because I care deeply for my uncle. So, I prayed to God that He would help my uncle kick his alcoholism and that God would become an important part of his life. My son lay in bed with his head down and eyes closed anxiously awaiting his turn. When I said, “In Jesus’ precious name, I pray, Amen” it was now my son’s turn.
I was very interested to see who my son would pick to pray for. Would it be me, his dad…maybe his mom… maybe his sisters…maybe it would be his grandparents, my parents…or maybe his uncle, my brother…all of whom he was very close to. After all, he is very young so it would have to be someone very close to him. Who else would he pray for? I waited…listening…waiting…and then he started.
My son prayed for a kid in his elementary school class. Right away I thought I remembered the name and while my son continued his prayer, I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. My son’s prayer was not all that long but it caught me so off guard that it seemed like an eternity to me. Time seemed to slow down as I listened, trying to remember where I knew this name from.
When he was done, suddenly, the name hit me! I said, “Hey buddy, isn’t that a kid in school you don’t like? Haven’t you told us that he gets in trouble all the time and you don’t like him very much?” My son looked at me and said, “Yeah, he is not a very nice kid and he gets in trouble a lot”. I was floored and I had to ask. “So why did you pray for him?” My son looked back at me and simply said, “I think he needed prayer, Dad. I think he needs to be nicer and do the right things so I asked God to help him.”
I think it is safe to say that I was shocked, but I tried not to show it. I simply said, “Wow, that’s pretty cool of you to do buddy. Well, let’s get ourselves in bed and get to sleep.” I kissed him as I always did, tucked him in, turned on his music, and off to sleep he went as I left his room.
However, after I left, I couldn’t help but ponder what just happened. I am sure my son thought nothing more of what he just did, rolled over, and went to sleep. But for me, it was so much more. I just realized that as I was thinking we’d be praying for those we cared about, who were close to us…never did it ever cross my mind to pray for one of my enemies…and here my young son had the compassion to pray for someone who did not treat him or anyone in his class very well. I had absolutely no idea he would be praying for his mean classmate. Looking back at that moment, it was as if he was just waiting for the opportunity to do so when I brought up the subject of praying for someone, in particular, that night. He didn’t have to give it much thought.
To this day that night has had an everlasting effect on me. I went into my son’s room that night thinking I was going to teach my son something great! Let’s pray for someone in particular, someone we love…let’s make our prayer to God deliberate and with a more defined purpose.
Never in a million years was I prepared for what my son would teach me that night! How about we pray for our enemies, Dad?
What a lesson I learned from my son that has stuck with me ever since! Maybe way back then, in my son’s small bedroom that night, my son was teaching me what it means to Have Character!
J. Noah Russell
HAVE CHARACTER™
