Family Prayer – May 18, 2003
There’s an old saying that, families who pray together, stay together. This simple wisdom of inviting God into our family life can make a big difference in our hearts and homes. When we pray as a family, we verbalize our love. We communicate our values, our concerns, our aspirations. A sacred bond forms between husband and wife, parents and children, and even extended family members as we consistently call upon the powers of heaven in each other’s behalf. Without doubt, hearts are knit together in a special way when, day after day, families kneel together in prayer.
Think of the soldier who, far away from home, can picture his family around the kitchen table, praying for his safety and comfort. Think of the student who leaves for school with a mother’s prayer in her ears or the father who goes to work with the warm glow of a child’s prayer in his heart. Consider the grandmother who doesn’t feel so alone when her grown children tell her, “We pray for you every day.”
Family prayers not only link the generations they also help to bridge gaps in communication. The parents of a four-year-old girl discovered why their daughter was not very excited about the upcoming birth of their baby only after she prayed, “Please bless that the old baby can stay when the new baby comes.” Somehow she thought the new baby would replace her two-year-old baby brother, but she had never expressed this concern before. Only in the safety of family prayer, with eyes closed and hands held, could she reveal her deepest fear.
In a world beset by uncertainty and fear, family prayer can be a constant source of strength and unity. In those quiet moments, away from the commotion of the world’s fast-spinning wheels, families stop and remember who they are. They pray over their concerns, their worries and their fears. They thank God for the security of each other’s embrace, the blessing and promise of each new day, and the assurance that heaven is only a prayer away.
Program #3848