SHOW AND TELL IT ALL

SHOW AND TELL IT ALL
Finding God's grace in normal life

Monday, May 21, 2012

Battles are Fought


This weekend with Handsome K traveling, I found myself on a day trip about 90 miles away going to a friend’s graduation party.  I was simply marveling in my own success while driving with Baby K appropriately taking his morning nap, Princess K and Little K quietly plugged into the headphones watching an educational DVD, and having only left 45 minutes past what I had planned. 

I was singing about life being a great adventure along with one of my favorite musicians and then it happened…

I often believe I have some kind of control over my babies safety, life choices, or anything for that matter.

But I don’t.

I can’t foresee and prevent everything unsafe from ever happening to them.  That doesn’t mean I won’t stop teaching them how to make good choices that honor God or that I won’t attempt to keep them as safe as humanly possible, but there are many things I cannot premeditate.

Up from the back of my mommy “safe” van, right behind Little K’s head, a yellow jacket suddenly appeared hovering near my boy’s head as if to say, “I will do whatever I want and you cannot stop me from way up there, he’s out of your reach.”  I saw that potential harm-inflicting insect in my rear-view mirror and let out a gasp. 

Of which none of the K’s heard due to the sleeping and headphones.

For about 2 seconds, I was paralyzed with the fact that the stinger of that bug was about to harm my children.  I luckily snapped out of my 2 second coma and reacted by pushing the button to roll down the window nearest my baby’s heads.

I got a couple of funny looks, but they weren’t curious enough to even peel their ears away from the dinosaurs teaching them about fossils. 

I wanted to see it get sucked out the window so that I could breathe easy and know that they were safe, but taking my eyes off the road for that long wasn’t an option.  I left the window open for a few minutes and hadn’t seen any signs of the harmful insect anywhere.  I rolled it up and said a silly but heartfelt prayer of, “protect my kids from harm.”

I paused a minute and thought, how many harmful things are lurking around them and by the power of a simple heartfelt prayer a supernatural battle is waged, unseen but real.
I read “This Present Darkness” probably a decade ago and I don’t think about the wars going on in the spiritual realm very often…I’m kind of one with simple faith living in 2D most of the time. 

But I was reminded about the power of prayer on a 2-lane highway driving through the wheat fields this weekend. 

Handsome K’s mom gave him a canvas for Father’s Day right after our 2nd was born.  It is a picture of a father praying beside the bed of his sleeping child, and in the faint background sky out of the window of the child’s room you can see a battle.  I remember going to a local bookstore when I was younger and looking at this exact painting.  I wondered what battles are being fought on my behalf simply because of people’s prayers.  I wanted to be that kind of parent that prays fervently for my family. 

God says in James 5:16 that “The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” 

What battles are being won on my kid’s behalf because of my prayers for them.

Cry out to the Lord on behalf of the little people in my life.

Cry out often.

When those yellow jackets appear lurking behind my kids I hope that my first instinct is always found where I have the most defense…on my knees.