poured out her soul there in burning supplication at the Throne of grace. Her son became a valued instrument in God’s hands. Our children must make their own way in the world. We cannot fight their battles for them even if we would. As we pray for them, God’s power is at work, strengthening them against evil. He can enable them to triumph over any temptation. The Lord is more eager that our children should live nobly even than we are. One teen-ager writes: “ I shall never forget my mother’s prayers. She used to kneel with me beside my bed in an upstairs room in our farmhouse. When I was thirteen years of age, I found myself longing for greater security. Remembering my mother’s prayers, I invited Christ into my heart.” A pastor had this to say: “My mother never knew that I knew how fully she respected my per sonality. One night, I saw her on her knees after she thought I was asleep. She was praying fer vently that I should respond to the vocation where God could use me effectively. That settled my career until I married some years later.” As God answers our prayer for our children, they will make the right choices as they face the big decisions of life. At a wedding reception, the mother of the bride stood near the end of the re ception line. Watching her daughter and new son- in-law greet the people moving by, she shed tears. They were the tears of grateful joy. She smiled and said: “ I prayed Kathy into this marriage.” Only a mother, only a truly Christian mother, can fully understand all that was involved in her statement. Further, our love greatly strengthens them. Love is a basic need in every human being. The divine nature is love and so it is the most God-like emotion that we can show. It is a great moving force. We parents do far more for our children out of love than we would ever do for others to gain money. We may be disappointed because we are not able to give our children all the toys and pleas ures we feel they should have, but our love for them will more than balance that loss. They will be happier when they are loved and cared for and have less toys and outings than when parents spend their money on them, but spend little time with them. In fact, they prefer love to everything else. In the early stages o f life, love in the family is completely one-sided. The baby receives all and can give nothing in return. Only gradually does he learn what love is and in a measure gives it back. Yet how beautifully encouraging it is when it is re turned ! How it strengthens the ties of family life ! Abby’s newspaper column has this letter writ ten by a mother: “ Dear Abby: What do you think of five children who served their mother breakfast
Our children must make their own way in the world. We cannot fight their battles for them. As we pray for them, God's power is at work, strengthening them against evil. He can enable them to triumph over any temptation. First, we can pray for them. Many noble men have attributed their greatness to the influence of their mother’s prayers. With the best will in the world, we may unin tentionally fail our children because we do not know what is for their ultimate good. We base our judgment on what they do and say, but that leaves much room for mistakes. Yet when we pray for them, we are asking the assistance of our Father who is too wise to err and too kind to withhold blessing. Sometimes we cannot help them because we lack the resources or because they are far away and we cannot reach them. Further, we do not always know their difficulties. Yet we can pray to our Father whose resources are unlimited. As Paul tells us, He “ is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think” (Eph. 3:20). The Lord can be near to them wherever they are. In the far West of America, a poor woman stood by her washtub where she was busy at work. Hot tears fell into the lather of her soap-suds. Her hands were working; her spirit was wrestling in prayer. Her heart overflowed in earnest entreaty for her son who was far away. The mother’s heart sensed something of the struggle through which her child was passing. He was on his knees in a desolate room hun dreds of miles away. A fearful temptation had as sailed his soul; the scales were swinging; who would win? The youth wrestled as if in death agony. At last he rose. Quiet determination was written in his face, and his features were lit with the radiance of victory. His mother’s prayers in the far-off log cabin in the West had decided the issue. That son became a great witness to the truth and led many into the Way of Life. How much the world owes to that poor woman’s prayer! She had
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THE KING'S BUSINESS
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