Parents should pray daily for their children

I have a good way to chat with people, or to befriend people without delving into their personal lives. I normally sit at Barnes and Noble or at a nearby Starbucks to my residence and read for research or pleasure.

By simply befriending people sitting nearby, or sometimes when sharing a table I learn of their lives. But what is most interesting is how they tell me of their trials in life. One young lady recently told me of having lost one of her students in a car accident. The loss occurred during Valentine's Day 2011.

Apparently the victim was not wearing her seat belt on, and the other young driver was writing text on his cell phone. The driver lost control of the vehicle by crossing the median, and he got involved in a head-on collision.

The driver survived because he had his belt on, but his female passenger, an 18 year-old, severed her spinal cord when her body struck the dashboard and front windshield. The girl, a very competitive soccer player in her high school team, was brain-dead but not bodily. Her parents were not in town at the time of accident. Both parents were divorced. The girl passed away the following day from the accident.

Who was praying for this girl? Perhaps no one! Here's my point: it is the responsibility of the parents to pray for their children because most young people are too busy with their lives to pay much attention to religious and spiritual matters.

I know this from my own experience as a father of three wonderful adult children. None go to Mass regularly, although all three were raised in the Catholic religion.

If I leave it up to them to pray daily to God for their protection and well-being, I will be making one huge assumption, and perhaps a serious mistake. Most people assume that all is good without a firm relationship to God, so when things go sour, they look up and blame heaven.

Perhaps prayers by the parents might have avoided the tragic accident of the girl that I mentioned. Maybe, just maybe, God could have intervened on her behalf to have prompted her to put on her seat belt and it might have saved her life.

Here's a parental dilemma that I want to share: "How do I know if praying to God for the protection of my children will actually work?" Here's my answer to that: "You don't, but if something should occur to your child, you will at least have had the comfort to know that you tried."

On the contrary, the burden of carrying the dead of a child for the rest of your life thinking that perhaps through prayers God could have saved that child is just to great a burden to bear!

Why parents don't pray regularly and consistently for their children is because they don't bother to consider the value of praying for anything or anyone at all! The fault lies with the parents and not with the children, regardless of the age of the child.

Dear reader, please reflect on this thought: "Praying was established since the days of Abraham over three thousand years ago on the firm belief that God is the protector of us all."

It is no different today, and it will continue to be our best policy: "To pray daily for the protection and well-being of our children to God is and will always be the duty and obligation of parents. To leave this responsibility to your children, teenagers, young adults is and can be a fatal mistake!"

You are welcome to reach me for prayers at my email address. You will be placed in my daily Prayer Vigil List, and I will carry you through until we get results. I ask for nothing in return, and just keep me posted. You may also want to read my latest articles on Ezine Articles posted on this Blog to the right, regarding prayers, healing, and the use of holy water.


Tony McCleary
tonymcclr@gmail.com