A Child's Prayer

A small boy gets down on his knees beside his bed one night, to pray for the first time in his life. The boy had been hearing about this man that lived a long time ago named Jesus, the son of God. He heard about Jesus from another little boy in school, named Jimmy. From the stories he heard Jimmy tell, this Jesus person is in heaven now and he can heal people and save people if you ask him too. The small boy starts to pray, he says - I want to talk to Jesus, if it’s OK with you God, for me to talk to your son. I don’t know the rules of how you are suppose to pray, so If I mess up God, please don’t get mad.

I just want Jesus to help my dad, he has been sick for a long time, and he has to take a lot medicine. The medicine costs a lot of money, so sometimes we have to go hungry so mom can buy the medicine dad needs, but I don’t mind that, they give us a nice lunch at school. Sometimes the other kids in school make fun of the clothes I wear, because they are not new and my mom gets them at yard sales for a dime, but that doesn’t bother me either.

My mom works real hard for every dime she makes. She gets paid a dime more than minimum wage, what ever that is? My mom works in a nursing home. Mom says the big shots that run the place really rake in the money for the people that have to live there. But they won’t spend it to make sure people can afford to work there, they spend the money to go on conventions, like to Las Vegas, and gamble the money away, while there is only half enough people working at the nursing home, that is needed to give decent care.

She works as a nurse aid, cleaning beds for the old people that can’t walk anymore, and can’t go to the bath room, when they have to use it. Sometimes my dad can’t walk because he gets so sick. He can’t make it to the bathroom and he wets himself. Sometimes he can’t even get out of bed so he throws up in bed and has to lay in it until mom gets home from work to clean him up and change the bed, like she does at work. She works a lot, so sometimes I have to carry dad's medicine to him in bed, Mom leaves him a bottle of medicine on the table beside of his bed before she leaves to go to work. If she has to stay over and work another shift, then I have to go get another bottle of medicine out of the cabinet for him.

Mom keeps a lot of extra bottles there for him. I play with the empty bottles because she can’t afford to buy me any toys, this makes her cry when she see’s me playing with only bottles. I tell her it’s OK, I pretend real good, I show her the empty bottles and say this one is a dump truck and this one is a fire truck. Other kids don’t want to play with me because I don’t have any toys and their moms won’t let them come to my house and they don’t want me to come to theirs. I think they are afraid they will catch the disease that my dad has, if I am around them, but it’s not catching, me and mom doesn’t have the disease and we are around dad all the time.

Jesus if you would just heal my dad, everything else would be OK. My mom wouldn’t have to work so may extra shifts, my dad could get a job like he use to have when I was first born. We would have money to buy food and everything, instead of buying so much medicine all of the time. I think it’s our fault my dad got this disease, he tells us all the time when he takes his medicine, that he has to take it because of us, my mom and me, and that it’s not his fault he has to take it.

Whatever we have done Jesus tell us what it was, so we will know and we won’t do it any more, because I can’t think of anything we did wrong. If you tell us, I know we won’t ever do it again, because we both love dad and we would do anything so he wouldn’t be sick anymore. I don’t know what the name of the sickness is that my dad has, but the medicine he takes for it, is called whiskey. Dad says it taste awful and burns all the way down, he drinks a sip of water after each dose.

If someone in our family has to be sick, then take the sickness away from my dad and give it to me. If it makes me die, thats OK, because Jimmy said, If I believe in Jesus, I would be able to go to heaven when I die, and I believe in you. My mom and dad don’t, so I don’t want them to die, because they would have to go to that place where you burn all the time. I tried to tell my dad about you today, but he said for me to get away, he wanted to be left alone.

I tried to tell my mom too, but she said her back was hurting too much to talk to me right now. So I’m the only one who knows about you here. Jimmy said we must all do God's work. If you will give me a list of chores to do, like my mom does, I will do them everyone. I don’t care how hard I have to work to save my dad, and mom. I’ll do it without complaining, not even once. I hope I didn’t break any of the rules on how to pray. I think this is where I am suppose to say Amen at.

Sometimes it’s hard to go to sleep at night, when your stomach is growling because it is empty. If I can’t sleep tonight, is it OK if I talk to you again later? If it won’t bother you too much that is? Because I really like talking to you Jesus. Will you be my friend?

The little boy didn’t have to hear the words with his ears, he could feel them in his heart, what Jesus said back to him. Jesus said: I’ll be with you always, I’ll never leave your side, what ever you ask of me, I will do for you. The prayer you said was just fine, it came from your heart, and spoken with faith, you can talk to me any time you like, I stay up all night too. The more you talk to me the better I like it. Tell me every thing and let me help you with it all, not just the big things, even the small ones too. I will be your best friend, because I have always loved you, and I always will.

The story is by Johnny Lee Hall. I find it very inspiring. This child has every single excuse to hate his life, and yet he doesn't. The most amazing thing about children is their innocence, their ability to believe with all their heart. Their faith is almost unshakable, and that's really something.

This child had only just heard about Jesus, but he believed immediately and he started trying to spread the love to his family, without procrastinating. And I truly admire that. Even grown people such as ourselves are wary of how to approach others when we decided to share His love.

God bless (: