A father’s life is full of surprises. The other day I read the story of a father who walked up on his son and his dog. The dog, a full-grown Labrador named Kelly and the four-year-old boy named Josh had a wonderful relationship. Though the dog and the boy loved each other, the dog often had to put up with the boy. Josh loved to hug the dog. Kelly would take as much as he could, but would invariably turn around and nip at the boy to make him turn loose.
One day the father walked up just as Josh had Kelly in one of his big hugs. He had his arms around the dog and his head tucked into the dog’s body so that Kelly could not bite him so easily. As Dad walked by he noticed that Josh’s eyes were closed and heard him say a little prayer, “Dear God, please don’t let Kelly bite me.”
It was cute but the dad could not miss a chance to teach a lesson about prayer. “Josh,” the father said, “God would be more apt to answer your prayer if you would let go of the dog.”
We too are like the little boy holding on to the dog that he knows will bite him and praying that the dog won’t bite. We do things that will bite us, but don’t want to feel the bite. What do we do to stop the biting? We pray. I am all for prayer. It is the greatest thing in the world, but usually the answer is prayer plus something else. That something else is to stop doing the thing that is going to bring us pain.
We pray for a happy marriage and then neglect one another. We pray for peace and live life at a frantic pace.
On and on the list could go. Each of us should examine the things that we pray for and then decide what we can do to help make the prayers come true. Keep on praying, but do your part too.
Lonnie Davis