A New Prayer

I pray for my kids pretty much everyday. Not because I make a conscious effort to do so, it just sort of happens when I peek in on them at bedtime or I am overwhelmed by them or the chaos of the day.

Usually, my prayers are for God to make them into mighty warriors for His kingdom. I've given up hoping in any thing else for them, because there is really nothing else that matters as long as they are wholeheartedly following Him. That's why we discipline them: not to make them 'good people' (as if that were possible) but to teach them obedience and pave the way for discipleship.

Along those lines, I've recently been exposed to a new kind of prayer for my kids: praying that they get 'caught'. Seems like kind of weird prayer, but I know I did all sorts of things and never got caught [as a kid, as a teenager, you name it]. I think praying for our kids to get caught is a powerful way to ask God to protect them from themselves and the influence of the world. 

You see, things done in secret only grow. Not only do they have the room to grow themselves, they grow our shame and guilt as well. As we continue in a secret sin, not only does its power over us multiply, but so does the voice in our head telling us how terrible we are for continuing in it, for covering it up, for living a lie.

Until we get caught.

Often getting caught is terrible. But it's also a relief. Finally, someone knows. Finally, I can confess. Finally, I can be free.

So I pray that as my kids get older and the sins they commit have the potential for much greater harm to themselves and others, I pray that God would cause them to be caught. For sin to be brought into light, so that confession can occur and they can understand what it means to be forgiven and redeemed, brought back into the sheepfold and loved dearly.