“Jesus Answered My Prayers For the Very First Time!” – Let’s Get Specific!

It was almost two years ago that I was in the delivery room with my daughter and her husband. A beautiful baby girl was delivered. To make a long story very short this was a very different of experience for our family. We had never had a baby born with any kind of physical problems. Minutes after her birth we were informed that she had “spineabifita.” After a brief examination in the Newborn ICU it was determined that she should be immediately transported to a Children’s Hospital for surgery. The next hour was one I will never forget. My heart ached for my daughter as they took Gracie from her arms. All I could think to say to her was that the Lord was very aware of everything that was happening. This reminder seemed calming to her. They instructed her husband to immediately prepare to follow the ambulance to the Children’s Hospital. Gracie was made secure and warm in a mobile bed that would roll right into the ambulance. We gathered in a state of disbelief and watched as the medical staff efficiently prepared our new little arrival for safekeeping and delivery into a doctor’s skillful hands.

My work for the next several days was to be the grandma to Gracie’s three siblings. The plan had been to be at home together, welcoming into the family a Pre-Christmas baby. Reality was living at grandmas, not being able to even see their tiny new sister, and both parents away for an undetermined length of time. Before and during Gracie’s surgery lots of prayers were said by the children. “Please bless Gracie in her surgery. Please bless the doctors to do a good job. Please bless Gracie to be OK.”

After the doctors completed the surgery my son-in-law called to give us the good news. The surgery had been a great success. I passed the phone around to each of the children so they could get the update from their dad. I will never forget the moment Ethan (age 5) galloped through the kitchen, expressing his gratitude and giving credit where credit was due. In loud and joyful exuberance he yelled, “Jesus answered my prayers for the very first time!”

I recorded that moment in my journal and then did some contemplating. My daughter and her husband are raising a praying family. Family prayer and individual prayer are an important part of their daily life. Why would Ethan say that this was his first answered prayer? I’m sure all his past prayers had been answered.

I learned something from Ethan that day about prayer. It was not a lesson about our prayers swaying the Lord this way or that. The good result was beside the point in the Lord’s personal message to me. What came to my mind was, “Nannette, this is the first time Ethan has ever been very specific with the Lord, in prayer, about something very real, something that matters a great deal to him. It is also his first experience praying with real intensity. That’s what makes this time so different for him.”

I determined from that point to pray with greater intent, with real purpose, and to be more specific with the Lord, full of details about the nature of my present struggle and more honest about my feelings. This must be an important aspect of my relationship with God. It made all the difference to Ethan. He taught me a lesson about how to pray so that I know I am communicating with God, and that He really is answering my prayers for the first, or hundredth, or millionth time.

By Nannette W.
Posted Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Copyright 2008 by Nannette W. All right reserved.
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