How should I pray for all these ladies I know who are in their nineties, or even their hundred’s like my mom? At the moment I can think of four who have medical issues and whose families have asked for prayers for them. I am told there is a need for prayer, and immediately I say, “Yes, of course.” But, yes, of course for what? Do they need my prayers? And what am I praying for, anyway? These are the same questions I’ve been asking ever since I got on this prayer gig.
Today I find myself praying that these women will not be in pain, and that they will feel God’s all-embracing love; I pray for peace for them, their families and friends, and their caregivers. Gingerly I pray for a cure, whatever that might mean. These are the same requests that I prayed last week for the family friend, who at age 48 died of a brain tumor; the same words, I should say. But my intonation, my plea, my agony was different, different for the woman and for her family. My prayer doesn’t feel the same for people in their 90s as for someone who is still in forties, or God forbid, someone younger, like a child with so much of life ahead of her.
“Thy will be done” is the ultimate prayer, but it sure can feel different.
Today I find myself praying that these women will not be in pain, and that they will feel God’s all-embracing love; I pray for peace for them, their families and friends, and their caregivers. Gingerly I pray for a cure, whatever that might mean. These are the same requests that I prayed last week for the family friend, who at age 48 died of a brain tumor; the same words, I should say. But my intonation, my plea, my agony was different, different for the woman and for her family. My prayer doesn’t feel the same for people in their 90s as for someone who is still in forties, or God forbid, someone younger, like a child with so much of life ahead of her.
“Thy will be done” is the ultimate prayer, but it sure can feel different.
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