One of the great joys of parenthood is praying with our children before bed. Their prayers are so honest! We could learn a thing or two by listening. For example, our son John used to thank God “for the friends I haven’t met yet.”
Of course kids can also teach us how not to pray! Sometimes people treat God as if He was a magic Genie that comes out of a lamp and grants us all our wishes. One little boy, on his way upstairs to bed, called over his shoulder, “I’m going to bed! I’m going to be praying! … Anybody want anything?”
Likewise, some people try to bargain with God in prayer. That’s almost like blackmail isn’t it? We tell God that if He answers our prayer, we’ll do some good work or change some bad habit. That’s a little like the boy who prayed, “I want a new BMX bicycle!”
His mother gently explained prayer shouldn’t be selfish. “Praying to God is no way to get a BMX bicycle.”
This happened during the Christmas season and the next morning as she came down the stairs she noticed something was wrong with the manger scene under the Christmas tree. The little figurine of Mary was gone and in its place was a note: “Dear Jesus, If you ever want to see Your mother again, You had better get me that BMX bicycle!”
Finally, Tony Campolo shares this story about prayer:
“An elderly missionary was discussing prayer at a women’s conference. To the small circle of women who gathered around her, she explained that when she first went to the mission field, more than fifty years earlier, she was extremely lonely. She saw that other missionaries were married and had families, and she bemoaned the feeling that she was all alone. In her loneliness, she begged God to pick out a husband for her. She told how she prayed and prayed and prayed, and was sure God would answer her prayer.
“One of the women in the group exclaimed, ‘But, you’ve never married! You’re still single!’
“The elderly missionary said, ‘You’re right! But somewhere out there is a seventy-four-year-old man who has been resisting God’s will for more than fifty years.’”
Tony concludes, “The story is not only funny, but it also drives home the point that we cannot expect Good to manipulate people to our own personal ends.”