DFH Volume 1 Issue 7

by Priscilla (daughter of Paul Dayton)

You know how important our family altar time was to Dad and Mom [Paul and Ruth Dayton], and we all had to take turns praying. Honestly, at the time, I didn’t appreciate it. I really liked those rare times when we were not all required to pray or kneel by our dining room chair on the hardwood floor. I did learn that prayer is a very important part of life, though I didn’t appreciate it at the time.

There have been many prayer requests with some pretty wild answers – the lesson is to be watching for whatever you ask. God will always answer with a “yes” or “no”. I’d like to tell you of two instances that involved my kids. We taught them about sharing, and on one occasion when Mary chose not to share a toy that she had saved and purchased, Sam reminded me that it says in the Bible that we are supposed to share. I responded with, “Yes, Sam, you’re right.”

Much to my chagrin, he handed me his Bible and said,  “Now where is that?” I have never been good with Bible references, and do you think I had any idea where it was other than in the New Testament? I prayed super quickly, “Lord, where is it? Please show me.” I didn’t want to disappoint Sam or put a hiccup in his faith. Without hesitating, I opened right up to it, and I said, “Well, Sam, it’s right here” and I read the verse to him! It happened so fast, it was almost as if there had been a book mark in the page. Talk about a boost to my faith!

Another cool one – and honest, this really happened – we were staying in a motel. Mary and Sam were very young and watching a kiddie show on cable. The host of the show started saying I see so and so, calling kids by name. I thought how wonderful if he would say “Mary and Sam”. Immediately after I quickly prayed that he would, he said, “And Mary and Sam” – I kid you not! Not all of my prayers are trivial, nor do I always receive the answers I long to receive, but these were for my kids – they were important to me!

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