My folks were adults when they accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior. It was the early ‘70’s and we lived in Brownstown, IL right next to the Christian church. They were baptized in the middle of the night by G. Robert Luse, the minister at the time. Although none of us kids witnessed this rebirth, we still got to experience godly parents at an early age. Mom and Dad were the kind of converts you read about in the New Testament – when they made the decision to follow Christ, there was no turning back. However, they didn’t miraculously become perfect people, but they didn’t stay as baby Christians, either. They were at church services every time the doors were opened and they got into the Word and studied it, praying and teaching us kids. As time went on, they eventually began family devotions and prayer time with us. We all were responsible for choosing a book from the Bible to study. Whosever turn it was would read a chapter out loud and then open it up for discussion. Dad had a few commentaries by then, so the individual responsible for that particular night was expected to do some study on their own before devotions that night.
One night it was my turn. By now I was in high school and had struggled with anemia for the better part of my life. As a result, I was tired the majority of the time and by 9:00 p.m., I was ready for bed. On this particular night, after reading the chapter and discussing it, I closed in prayer. I bowed my head and closed my eyes to begin my prayer. As I prayed aloud, my words started coming out slower and slower until they eventually stopped. In my subconscious mind, I knew I had stopped speaking out loud but was in that state of sleep where I could not do anything about it. Until suddenly, it hit my conscious mind that I was not talking out loud anymore! Thankfully, I recovered and continued on with my prayer, all the while feeling foolish. After the “Amen,” I raised my head to see my mom looking at me with her head cocked a bit and a twinkle in her eye. She gently asked, “Dena, did you fall asleep while you were praying?” Sheepishly, I admitted that I had. We all had a good laugh about it and I believe that is one prayer time I will never forget! I honestly don’t think God was insulted because He knew that years down the road, I would fall asleep many times in the middle of conversations not only with family members but with guests in our house!
Family devotions were a great time for bonding in our house and for learning how to read and spell. But even more importantly, we learned to love the Word and its Author. What better way to learn so much with one’s family and from just one Book!!
One night it was my turn. By now I was in high school and had struggled with anemia for the better part of my life. As a result, I was tired the majority of the time and by 9:00 p.m., I was ready for bed. On this particular night, after reading the chapter and discussing it, I closed in prayer. I bowed my head and closed my eyes to begin my prayer. As I prayed aloud, my words started coming out slower and slower until they eventually stopped. In my subconscious mind, I knew I had stopped speaking out loud but was in that state of sleep where I could not do anything about it. Until suddenly, it hit my conscious mind that I was not talking out loud anymore! Thankfully, I recovered and continued on with my prayer, all the while feeling foolish. After the “Amen,” I raised my head to see my mom looking at me with her head cocked a bit and a twinkle in her eye. She gently asked, “Dena, did you fall asleep while you were praying?” Sheepishly, I admitted that I had. We all had a good laugh about it and I believe that is one prayer time I will never forget! I honestly don’t think God was insulted because He knew that years down the road, I would fall asleep many times in the middle of conversations not only with family members but with guests in our house!
Family devotions were a great time for bonding in our house and for learning how to read and spell. But even more importantly, we learned to love the Word and its Author. What better way to learn so much with one’s family and from just one Book!!
