This morning Princess was telling me about a girl in her grade that rubs her the wrong way. "She just thinks she's better than everyone else, Mom. I want to get along with her, but I just don't want to be around her." I told Princess that she should pray about it. "OK but I'm gonna pray that God will make her not act that way." I chuckled, thinking of the number of times I've prayed for people to act a certain way and the realization that I should be praying for my own attitudes and heart. I explained to Princess that she needed to pray for this girl, but mostly she needed to pray for her own heart, that God would help her to love this girl like He loves her and that God would change her heart. "But Mom, that's hard. I don't want to change, she's the one who is acting that way." How many times have I thought the same thing and uttered those words to God?
In the car on the way to school, I asked Princess to pray, as we all take turns praying on the way to school in the mornings. After we all prayed, Princess said, "I didn't want to pray for her but I did and it better work. If she doesn't change I'll know my prayers didn't work and I wasted those words on her." Before I could respond, Prince says, "Look, we're Christians so deal with it."
That wasn't as eloquent as what I was going to say, but it was to the point. We are called to pray for others and to love others unconditionally. I went on the explain that lifting someone up to God is never a waste of words and as many words as Princess uses in a day, I doubt she'll miss those few. I also told her that she may not see the difference right away, that she needed to keep praying until. Pray until something happens.
Princess sighed. I know she wasn't happy with that answer. I know the right answer and I'm not always happy with it. There are people and relationships in my own life that I pray about and I don't want to be the one to have to change. It seems to me that if they are the problem, they should be the ones to have to make the change. That's not how God sees it.
Prince and Princess's memory verse this week is: This I command you to love one another. John 15:17
And then I came across this verse, 1 John 4:12 "No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us."
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