Modern Day Prayers
Loooking down, I held my phone in one hand, texting freakishly fast with my thumb, and signaled "one second, hush!" with my other hand.
Mom.
--textingtextingtexting-holdinguponesecondfinger-textingtextingtexting-shhhhhhhh-textingtextingtexting-justasec-textingtextingtexting--
Moooooooooooooom.
--textingtextingtexting-holdinguponesecondfinger-textingtextingtexting-shhhhhhhh-textingtextingtexting-justasec-textingtextingtexting-hangon-textingtextingtexting-SHHHH--
MOM!
I raised my head and met his eyes, "Child, just a second, I am PRAYING!"
"You're praying? It looks like you're texting. Why don't you call them?"
Instantly I flashed back to decades ago when my own mother would pick up the landline (do you young people even know what a landline is??? It's a phone, with a cord attached to it, and... oh never mind), she'd hold up the "one second, hush" finger at me, bow her head, close her eyes and pray with whomever was on the other line. I could tell by her voice it was not the time to ask her if I could watch Punky Bruster or if we were having Hamburger Helper for dinner, it was a time for me to be quiet and let her pray.
"They all joined together constantly in prayer..."
Acts 1:14
I loved watching the "Prayer Chain" unfold before my eyes. If my dad was home he'd go in the other room, pick up the phone in there and join them - the original conference call. They'd talk quietly for a few seconds then one of them would flip through the weathered church directory and find the next three people on the list to call. Those three people would call three people, and those would call the next, and that's how it went until whomever asked for prayer to begin with had a hundred + plus people bringing their need before the Lord... almost as effective as a prayer request posted on Facebook no doubt. And more often than not, following the phone call, my mom would be in the kitchen rustling up some dinner or baked goods or something comforting to bring the family in need. She'd bring me along with her to "drop something off real quick", sometimes picking up medicine or groceries on our way. It was never a fuss, it was just what she did, I don't think she knew how to NOT do that.
I'm so thankful my parents brought me into that kind of community. Listening to hushed prayers and dropping food off on people's porches shaped a big part of who I am. Seeing her stop, listening to her dependency on God to take control of the matter, she exemplified empathy and compassion just by answering the phone. So when I looked at my son and saw the confusion on his face as I texted my prayers, it hit me that the convenience of texting might be stealing my opportunity to do the same for my children. They see it in other ways, hopefully, but they have no idea that some of the time when I'm texting during the day I'm sharing Bible verses, praying, or being prayed for. It's not all emojis and memes (though I have been known to send a fantastic meme or two) that tiny device can be a tool to rally people for Christ and serve our community.
I think there is something to be said about "the good old days" when conversations were a little bit more out in the open, when kids were brought into their parents' world just enough to teach them how a community works. Sure, my mom would pull the phone cord taunt and shut the door in an effort to protect the privacy of the person calling, but it was enough to hear her tone and learn that sometimes conversations are great, and sometimes they are hard, and sometimes they are a call to prayer.
We can't go back in time, I get that. Texting will be a thing of the past before we know it so I'm not going to get hung up on the means and focus more on the end. It might look and sound different to my kids, but my hope is that I can exemplify empathy and bring them into our community the way my parents did, the way Jesus calls us to. I can hold their hands while we pray for our friends. They can help make a meal and ride along when we "drop something off real quick". And they can keep their questions and bow their heads when I signal, "one second, I'm praying." as my thumbs move a mile a minute, texting prayers away.
Mom.
--textingtextingtexting-holdinguponesecondfinger-textingtextingtexting-shhhhhhhh-textingtextingtexting-justasec-textingtextingtexting--
Moooooooooooooom.
--textingtextingtexting-holdinguponesecondfinger-textingtextingtexting-shhhhhhhh-textingtextingtexting-justasec-textingtextingtexting-hangon-textingtextingtexting-SHHHH--
MOM!
I raised my head and met his eyes, "Child, just a second, I am PRAYING!"
"You're praying? It looks like you're texting. Why don't you call them?"
Instantly I flashed back to decades ago when my own mother would pick up the landline (do you young people even know what a landline is??? It's a phone, with a cord attached to it, and... oh never mind), she'd hold up the "one second, hush" finger at me, bow her head, close her eyes and pray with whomever was on the other line. I could tell by her voice it was not the time to ask her if I could watch Punky Bruster or if we were having Hamburger Helper for dinner, it was a time for me to be quiet and let her pray.
"They all joined together constantly in prayer..."
Acts 1:14
I loved watching the "Prayer Chain" unfold before my eyes. If my dad was home he'd go in the other room, pick up the phone in there and join them - the original conference call. They'd talk quietly for a few seconds then one of them would flip through the weathered church directory and find the next three people on the list to call. Those three people would call three people, and those would call the next, and that's how it went until whomever asked for prayer to begin with had a hundred + plus people bringing their need before the Lord... almost as effective as a prayer request posted on Facebook no doubt. And more often than not, following the phone call, my mom would be in the kitchen rustling up some dinner or baked goods or something comforting to bring the family in need. She'd bring me along with her to "drop something off real quick", sometimes picking up medicine or groceries on our way. It was never a fuss, it was just what she did, I don't think she knew how to NOT do that.
I'm so thankful my parents brought me into that kind of community. Listening to hushed prayers and dropping food off on people's porches shaped a big part of who I am. Seeing her stop, listening to her dependency on God to take control of the matter, she exemplified empathy and compassion just by answering the phone. So when I looked at my son and saw the confusion on his face as I texted my prayers, it hit me that the convenience of texting might be stealing my opportunity to do the same for my children. They see it in other ways, hopefully, but they have no idea that some of the time when I'm texting during the day I'm sharing Bible verses, praying, or being prayed for. It's not all emojis and memes (though I have been known to send a fantastic meme or two) that tiny device can be a tool to rally people for Christ and serve our community.
"Therefore encourage one another and build one another up..."
1 Thessalonians 5:11
"Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil.
For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up!" Ecclesiastes 4:9-10
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