Good conversation with Rosie: God answers prayer
Yesterday there was a party for all the one-on-one pairs, so Rosie came to Taylor for that (side-note: Rosie is the second-grader I mentor through one-on-one). Rosie's family does not go to church, but there is a church across the street from them where she goes to a Bible-school on Saturdays.
We ended up leaving the party and going for a walk, which led us past the memorial prayer chapel. She asked what it was, what was inside it, etc. I described how there are a few small rooms where you can go and be by yourself and pray, and how a lot of people go there if they're sad about something or they're worried or happy or confused, and they need to talk to God; there's also a bigger room where people can go in groups and have Bible studies, or sing worship songs together. She asked if I had ever used it; I answered yes, and she asked, "Did it happen?" I asked her, "Did what happen?" and she replied, "What you prayed. Did it happen?" I was able to tell her about recently when I was really scared for my dad, with my mom leaving, and I went to the prayer chapel to beg God to bring him safely through. I was able to tell her that it had been a week and God was not only holding him together, but growing him and healing him and giving him more peace than I would ever have thought to pray for. God always answers when we pray.
She thought about it for a bit, and the really beautiful thing was that she then told me a story of a time when she had prayed and God had answered her. There had been a really bad storm in her town, and her family had to go into the basement of the church across the street. She prayed that God would send the storm away and that there wouldn't be a tornado. I asked if there was one, and she smiled and said no, God answered her prayer.
God doesn't always answer our prayers the way we want or expect, thank goodness. Sometimes, though, He does, and I think this is really important; I don't think that it's just a fluke, or that we just happened to pray for the right outcome by chance. I think a big part of the reason why God sometimes chooses to answer our prayers exactly the way we hoped is so that even a child can look at what happened and recognize, "That was God. That was God, and He heard me, and He answered me." I think that part of the reason why He didn't allow the tornado to touch Rosie's town was simply so that she could look back later and see His hand. In fact, I'm pretty sure that He was looking straight at her in the basement of the church when He turned the tornado away, sad for the fear she was feeling but also smiling with eager expectation of how clearly she would see Him later as a result.
k. rose
We ended up leaving the party and going for a walk, which led us past the memorial prayer chapel. She asked what it was, what was inside it, etc. I described how there are a few small rooms where you can go and be by yourself and pray, and how a lot of people go there if they're sad about something or they're worried or happy or confused, and they need to talk to God; there's also a bigger room where people can go in groups and have Bible studies, or sing worship songs together. She asked if I had ever used it; I answered yes, and she asked, "Did it happen?" I asked her, "Did what happen?" and she replied, "What you prayed. Did it happen?" I was able to tell her about recently when I was really scared for my dad, with my mom leaving, and I went to the prayer chapel to beg God to bring him safely through. I was able to tell her that it had been a week and God was not only holding him together, but growing him and healing him and giving him more peace than I would ever have thought to pray for. God always answers when we pray.
She thought about it for a bit, and the really beautiful thing was that she then told me a story of a time when she had prayed and God had answered her. There had been a really bad storm in her town, and her family had to go into the basement of the church across the street. She prayed that God would send the storm away and that there wouldn't be a tornado. I asked if there was one, and she smiled and said no, God answered her prayer.
God doesn't always answer our prayers the way we want or expect, thank goodness. Sometimes, though, He does, and I think this is really important; I don't think that it's just a fluke, or that we just happened to pray for the right outcome by chance. I think a big part of the reason why God sometimes chooses to answer our prayers exactly the way we hoped is so that even a child can look at what happened and recognize, "That was God. That was God, and He heard me, and He answered me." I think that part of the reason why He didn't allow the tornado to touch Rosie's town was simply so that she could look back later and see His hand. In fact, I'm pretty sure that He was looking straight at her in the basement of the church when He turned the tornado away, sad for the fear she was feeling but also smiling with eager expectation of how clearly she would see Him later as a result.
k. rose
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