Prayer and Parenthood

Probably the most common starter for prayers of supplication is the desire for physical goods.

Humans are covetous, and children especially so. As a parent, one must be careful not to

discourage a child from praying for the things they want, even if they are base physical desires.

Most likely these prayers will be a good introduction to “the answer was ‘No” meditations

discussed in my previous posts. They allow us to teach children that life is more full than physical desires. 

Though Jesus multiplied the loaves in John’s gospel he also chastised, “you are looking for me not because you saw a sign [a symbol that affects what it communicates] but because you ate the loaves and were filled.” This is a great pedagogical use of children’s petition for physical things.

It is helpful to remember that the experience of those in the story is the same whether they

experienced the sign or simply enjoyed having their fill. Wanting physical things is not bad, if we can learn to want them in a way that brings us closer to a loving relationship with God or closer to doing his will.

As children pray for physical things, be happy with them that they can pray to God for all their needs and wants. 

In discerning God’s answer to those prayers, the time is present for helping

children understand in a way appropriate to their maturity that physical reality is not just a

pleasure matrix, but is “significant” and exists to help us love God and our neighbor.

Phillip Garside has been a short order cook, an artist, an analytical scientist and an academic educator. He and his wife Rebecca have three children in the hopes of one day jettisoning them into the world and infecting it with their domestic church’s uniquely bizarre brand of Catholicism.