Prayer Works

The other day, Johnny was complaining to me that Kelly didn't like him. Loudly. A short time later, when he had calmed down, I reminded him of a family story about prayer.

When I was pregnant with Laine, they told me it was a girl, but since I've known several people to be surprised when the opposite gender child popped out at the end of nine months, I always told the children that the doctor said it was one sex, but it could be the other. We always selected names for both sexes. So when I was pregnant with Laine, I told Joe and Kelly that if we had a girl, the baby would be called Mary, and if it was a boy, the baby would be called Johnny. (I should probably explain that Laine's name is Mary Elaine, but we always intended to call her Laine as her nickname.) Laine was going to be our last baby...no more after her.

When I had Laine, Kelly came to visit at the hospital. At three years old, she always said what she thought. She thought Laine was really cute, and she was really happy to see her. She held her and sang to her and got really jealous when Erin held her. She told Joe to be careful when he was holding his new baby sister. Then when it was time to go home, she became very agitated. When I asked her what was wrong, she kept asking "What about Johnny?" I tried to explain to her that the baby could have been a boy or a girl, but we had a girl baby, and there was no boy baby. She was still upset and began to cry when we got into the car without Johnny. I finally calmed her down.

Yet everyday after that, anytime Kelly said a prayer, she prayed that Johnny would come to our family. She prayed that her little brother could be born. She asked that she could see her little brother and hold him. She asked at bedtime, and in the morning, and at meals. She asked in her prayers in her classes at church, too.

I was actively trying to prevent getting pregnant, not because I didn't want any more children, but because the stress in our home was enormous. Well, after about one year of Kelly's constant prayers, I found out that I was pregnant, and Johnny came into our family 21 months after Laine. Right from the start, Kelly was convinced that her little brother was the cutest little guy she had ever seen, except for bubba Joe. He was loved immediately by all of us!

Now when I told this story to Johnny, his countenance brightened. And now, when he's feeling upset with Kelly, I just remind him that she prayed him into our family, and she does love him.

Prayer works, my friends. Johnny is living proof.