READ: Matthew 6:9-13
Each night when I put my children to bed I try to pray with them, and gradually I have been encouraging them to pray as well. At first my son Andrew did not want to pray out loud. With some prompting, he began to pray simply, “Lord, thank you for this day, Amen.” However, just recently he changed his nightly prayer. The new version goes like this: “Lord, thank you for the good things that happened today. Let them happen again tomorrow. Please correct the bad things that happened today, and turn them into something good tomorrow.” I don’t know where it came from, but I love that prayer! It’s really a child’s version of the Lord’s Prayer: “let your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” That’s what faith does: fills us with thankfulness for all the good that is in the world now, and fills us with hope that God can turn even the bad into something good tomorrow. Maybe you can use Andrew’s prayer this week, too.
– Ken Roach