on the walk

[Note: For those of you following the One Month to Live series, don't worry it will be back on Monday.]

On most nights, the night ends for my boys with prayers.  After a story (if there is time), PJ’s, bath, teeth, water, music and lights out, the boys and I pray.  Everyone gets a chance to pray.  My youngest (3.75)is on a bit of a strike right now, but my oldest (6) loves to pray.  Our evening prayers are mostly thank you’s although we have been talking about how it is good to tell God other things as well.  We can tell God about our worries and fears and even talk to God about things that we want.  Nevertheless on most nights it is a list of thank you’s.  A pretty typical prayer segment sounds like this:

Thank you for this day and thank you that we got to play the star wars video game and that we got to eat apple slices for snack and that we got to make what were they called  (I whisper wreaths) oh yeah that we got to make wreaths even though daddy wouldn’t let me do it by myself or use the what are they called (clippers) even though they are just like big scissors and I know how to use scissors thank you anyway and thank you that daddy is going to remember to put butter on the toast right away next time so that it will melt but thank you for toast anyway because that is a special breakfast and it is important to be grateful even when we don’t things exactly the way we want them and thank you for mommy who is the best mommy in the world, Amen.

A couple of night ago was a surprise variation.  After a prayer through a days worth of gratitude he paused and said,

And God, about the bee, thank you and no thank you.  Thank you that I found out that I am not allergic to bees and that it didn’t hurt as bad as I thought it would so that now I can be like daddy and not be afraid of bees, but not thank you that I got stung today.

I am not sure I have much to add to that.  I have suffered very little in my life.  But that is exactly how Christians should feel about the little suffering I have done.  Thank you for the good you do through it, but not thank you for it.  We are not called to be masochists.  We don’t have to pretend that we are grateful that we suffer.  The scripture is full of the lament of those who suffered and told God in pretty clear language that they were not happy about it, but we can learn to trust God and be grateful in our suffering for the good that God can work.

Suffering is a reality of life.  When I suffer I pray that I can so straightforwardly say to God, “thank you and no thank you.”

on the walk

-Ethan

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