I went to a Christian University, I took the theology courses, have a Christian education degree and have been to many conferences and studies. I KNOW that prayer is all about aligning our hearts with God, and not bending His will to ours. However, I also know that God is my Heavenly Father and He cares about our needs and even many of our wants. He knows the hairs on our heads and when we seek Him, He will give us the desires of our heart.
I have had many people with advanced degrees and more blog followers than I, tell me that prayer is about changing our hearts and advancing the Kingdom, not about my personal little needs. We should be using our prayer time to focus on the least, the needy and the oppressed. I don't disagree, I do pray for these things also. I do not presume to know more than these scholars, I can just tell you what I have experienced in my life. I know that God hears my prayers and somehow He even hears what those more educated than I, would call frivolous prayers.
Our family does not have the resources to take many vacations or elaborate trips. However, God always provides in amazing ways and it is important to us as a family to spend special times together whenever possible. A short time ago our family was blessed with the opportunity to take a week and head to the north woods. We were given a cabin on the lake for a week of outdoor fun. Everyone had been looking forward to it for months.
As the time came to pack and prepare I began watching the weather forecasts for the time and place we were heading. I kid you not, every time I checked, the websites said it would rain everyday of our vacation. I was becoming discouraged. We all packed plenty of clothes to last us these cold rainy days. I began to pray daily for our trip. I prayed for safe travel, great bonding time and for no rain to fall between the hours of ten in the morning and six in the evening. I knew it was a long shot, but I figured I would ask.
Each day on our trip when we awoke the weather man said it was going to rain sometime during the day. One day they were even calling for severe weather in the afternoon. You may choose not to believe me, but I am telling you that it never rained between the hours of ten and six. It was completely amazing. My uncle, whose cabin we were using, even laughed at me when I told him it wouldn't rain between ten and six. He looked at the sky, shrugged his shoulders and chuckled. But, I was right, it didn't rain until much later. It rained almost every day of our trip, sometimes in the early morning and sometimes in the late evening, but never when we were out having fun.
I know what the skeptics are going to say, but I firmly believe that God provided for our family. We had an amazing time kayaking, swimming, boating and fishing. The mosquitos were heavy, but most days there was a nice breeze that helped to reduce their population in our area. Each of our seven children got to have special adventures and we made many memories as a family. I seriously could not have asked for a better vacation. I am so thankful to God for His loving hand in our lives. I can almost not believe it myself. What an incredible blessing He gave us!
Our children pray frivolous prayers all the time, I do not discourage them. For example, at our previous home there was a store that would box their donuts and discount them in the evenings. One time I was at the store with one of our youngsters, as we are walking in she asked if we could get donuts. Now it wasn't on my list and we certainly didn't need them, but I told her if they were boxed and discounted that we could get some. The bakery was almost the first thing in the store. We approached the counter and saw that the donuts had not yet been boxed. She was very disappointed. So I told her we would get all the items on our list and then swing by the bakery section one more time before checking out. She was very pessimistic. I suggested that she pray about it. She did. Guess what, when we swung by the second time, there were donuts. It is an extremely simple pray, but it sure helped her faith.
Frivolous prayers can also be a great way to show that God has something better planned for them. But, you need to remember the prayer so that several days later when a different answer comes you can point out how God worked the situation for their good. For example, one child of ours prayed for a specific coach and she did not get that coach. However, it is clear now that this coach she has is exactly what she needed. She has excelled in just a few weeks. Be sure to point these things out and take the time to talk about how God is working in her life, or she may never see it.
Let me encourage you to pray even the prayers that seem frivolous. If it is not a completely selfish ambition and God can be glorified in the situation, I truly believe that He hears us and cares about us enough to answer. Never underestimate the power of a sincere, heartfelt prayer!
After writing this, I was reminded that it did rain on Sunday between ten and six. However, we had gone to an early dinner with Grammy and Grampy. We were inside a restaurant having a great time with our family. We were about an hour from the cabin, I don't know if it was raining there or not. My guess is that it wasn't. :-)
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