Pivotal Prayers

There is nothing like Christmas to teach a child about prayer, and the parents for that matter. "But Christmas is over!" you say. No. Not in the heart of one little four-year old I know. Not wanting Christmas to end, our son asked us if he could keep the miniature Christmas tree in his room. We loved that he wants to celebrate Christmas all year long. Tonight, however, something was wrong with his tree: the star didn't light up. Recalling our prayers during the recent snow storm that knocked out the power in our home, and that the power returned almost immediately, our son offered this in his nightly prayer, "And please bless that the Christmas tree star will go back on." My first thought was, "Well, this is an easy answer to prayers. I'm sure my wife just unplugged the connection because it's too bright as a night-light." When I checked, it was still plugged in. My son watched me check the star and reminded me that "Heavenly Father will turn it back on." This is where the parent learns to pray, because in my heart that is what I was doing. I didn't want to say anything that would shatter a four-year old's faith in prayer or confuse him about why his prayer over restoring power to the entire house miraculously worked but his prayer over the Christmas star light didn't. Didn't it? At least, I felt that I should tell him that before prayers are answered Heavenly Father expects us to do everything we can on our own. So, I promised him I would do my best to fix it. Now, as I am about to attempt to fix the light, I'm praying again that whether I fix it or not, I'll know what to tell him. I feel that if I can fix it, I should explain that sometimes prayers are answered through other people. If I can't fix it, it will be much harder to explain. Sometimes we what we ask for is not His will, but He doesn't always tell us why. In my experience, we find out only after exercising patience and trust, and we are usually grateful He didn't grant us what we wanted that time. But, is that too much for a four-year old to understand, especially when it's just a light? We'll soon find out. Maybe, both as to my son and his prayer for the Christmas star, the scripture will ring true, out of small things which seem like foolishness to men will great things come to pass.