"If this, then that," is part of a language within the realms of Logic. However, even without studying Logic, your mind is subjected to its tenants. If I get milk at the store on the way home, then, the kids or posterity in my house will have cereal with milk in the morning. If I make dinner, then, my family will be fed...and happy!
I submit these fairly benign, and even innocent conclusions have disastrous consequences when it comes to prayer... If I pray or if I pray with my kids (my posterity), then, there will be effects of spiritual prosperity for myself and my kids in my home. It is as if, without realizing it, we cross the line of "if, then" syllogisms that are logical in the real world and use that thought calculation in our spiritual realities.
We tend to build our own prosperity ways of living into our spiritual habits. If I participate in this way with God it will demonstrate my piety, or it will further the effect of goodness and make my circumstances good. There is an earning way of thinking that tends to sneak into our spiritual choices.
Furthermore, we are modeling that way of thinking for our kids, which, is why I believe we lose our kids at a certain point. They have seen the sleight of hand and realize it is not real, even if I have fully convinced myself that's not what I am doing. Surely, I am not praying in order to earn something. Surely, I am praying to be close to God and that's it, right?
I submit we are not careful enough to root out ideas about what happens during and after prayer with our kids, and we have a tendency to engage in the wrong way to consider prayer and prayer with kids. I believe we underestimate what God is doing during prayer with kids and overestimate expectations after prayer with kids!!
My reality has been the more present I become, the more I notice during and after the prayers with my kids, the more I feel things are really being held together by a gossamer thread of connection that Jesus is very clearly the one maintaining. That sort of precarity and vulnerability is hard for my scrupulous heart to accept, but I know deeply that is the reality He sustains. Jesus is so nice, and does not take over, not completely, not yet.
These prayer practices, and, the content presented here is NOT for you to feel that elated feeling of doing something for God so He will do something for you, something you can expect in safe ways. Maybe even something you use as part of your own prosperity way of thinking, though that might not even be on your radar because you never checked to see if that's what you are doing internally.
These prayer practices are more like learning a habit that is healthy for your heart; I would argue these are the most healthy habits for you spiritual heart. Developing a skillset of prayer not only within your own heart but in cooperation with your kids, allows you to tap into His Beauty and Presence (on the regular days and the "Not-So-Great Days"). So, remember, we are about building habits, seeing patterns and tapping into His Eternal Now. We are NOT building the most perfect lives, kids, or expectations of what will happen in our future. As CS Lewis says... He is not safe, but He is good.
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