Pray

The tragic shooting in Connecticut this past week has been on my mind, as I'm sure it has been on many of yours.  As I see these and other challenging situations faced by people across the world, it is sometimes hard.  I wonder if there is anything I can do to help.

 And there is.  There is something all of us can do.  It is as simple as kneeling, folding our arms, bowing our heads, and praying to our Heavenly Father.  There is great power in prayer.  I know that He hears each and every prayer, and He blesses those for whom we pray.

And prayers need not be only for distant situations or unfamiliar people.  Some of those who need our prayers the most live in our own home.  And the example we set will be noticed by our children.

I had a poignant experience with the power of prayer and the way our children follow our example.  Just before dinner last night, my son started having stomach pains.  It was bad enough that he skipped out of dinner and went to lay down on the couch.  As my two daughters came to dinner, my oldest announced that she had been in her room praying for her brother, and that her little sister had been in there with her listening to the prayer.  At this point, my son piped up from the couch that he had also said a prayer for himself.

My heart was filled with deep gratitude and joy for my children.  It is a great comfort for me to know that my children know where to turn when they are facing challenges, or when a family member needs extra help.  This will be a great blessing to them, all of their lives.

We need the family more than ever

Part of what lead me to create this blog was my discovery of the Christian marriage blogging community.  There are many wonderful people out there who are blogging about marriage and family, and are teaching the truth according to the principles found in the Bible.  Some of them are listed in the sidebar, should you be interested in reading them.  I highly recommend them.

Today's post is from Canadian writer Sheila Wray Gregoire's website To Love, Honor, and Vacuum.  She speaks about the increased need for strong families in today's world.  Here is an excerpt from the article:

"And so we need, more than ever, to have strong families. We need a buffer from the storm, and that is why God gave us each other. We need to commit to loving our families, commit to nurturing and growing our families, and commit to showing others what a true community looks like.
Two thousand years ago the Christians were able to do that because they loved each other, and through that love they were strong enough to help others."

You can read the whole article here.