Praying They Are Caught

I have been blessed to interact with many wonderful parents. I truly enjoy seeing others interact with their children, especially their adult children. The relationship of a parent and child changes so much from birth to birth of grandchildren, it simply amazes me. Often when I see a family that looks like they have weathered the seasons of parenting with grace and wisdom, I will ask them for one or two pieces of advice they could give to other parents. Many times they are so humbled by the parenting journey that they have very little to say. However, the one or two things they do say are often true gems for me to hold on to.

One such gem I have been given is to "pray that my children are caught when they do something wrong." This advice really confused me at first. Why would I pray for my child to get in trouble? Shouldn't I be praying for their safety and protection? Shouldn't I be training them to never do something wrong, why would they need to be caught? Why would these parents pray for their children to be caught when they misbehave?

As my children grew older, and as they began to out number me, I saw the value in this bit of advice. When our children are caught misbehaving, we are given a chance to teach them and correct their behavior. The more opportunity we have to teach and train, the better our children will be at making wise and informed choices as they get older. Being able to work through numerous situations with our children can also provide us with some peace of mind when they are away from us. We know that there are few situations that our children can face that we haven't already worked through with them.

There is an additional benefit to this prayer. It seems to me that I often have a strong sense of my child(ren) misbehaving. You know, the whole "eyes in the back of her head" thing. I am truly blessed to have caught my children often enough that they know I can see them, even if they can't see me. They have asked several times how I knew what they were up to...I simply tell them that "God gives moms special senses to know when their precious gifts need their help."

I can honestly tell you that I hate this prayer as much as I like it. It breaks my heart to know that my children struggle with misbehavior and poor choices. I would much rather go through my days believing that my children always make great choices, never hit, never use bad words and always show God's love. For that matter, I would love to believe that I would always make great choices and always show God's love, but at last we live in a fallen world. We live in a world that is fighting each day to steal my child's heart, my prayer for them to be caught just gives me a chance to help keep their heart right where it belongs.....in line with God's word.

May God bless you as you teach your precious gifts to make the best choice in all situations and give you the strength to pray that they are caught!