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Isn’t it interesting the way that God will use our children to teach us things?  I mean, we, as parents, are supposed to be the ones who are the teachers in the family.  But my daughter, Ashton, recently taught me a very important lesson about prayer. 

It was the day of Ashton’s high school graduation – a day we had all looked forward to for a very long time.  It was going to be a very special day.  Ashton was the Valedictorian of her class and had worked hard to craft a challenging and God-honoring speech.  She had sprinkled in some humor, some reflection on past events in the class, a summary of the class’ accomplishments, some serious thank yous, a personal story about the character of her class, and concluded it all with a prayer of blessings, protection, salvation, and guidance.  It took you through the entire range of emotions: joy to sadness, somber reflection to a hopeful forecast of the future.  It was just what you would expect from a student accepted into the Honors Program at the University of Georgia who was going to major in Speech Communication.  We were so very proud of her.

There was just one problem…the weather.  The graduation ceremonies were to be held outside on the Bremen High School football field. The weather forecast called for a strong possibility of scattered pop-up thunderstorms in the area. Throughout the week leading up to the Friday night graduation the forecast had called for about a 40% chance of scattered thunderstorms. If it rained the graduation ceremonies would be moved inside the gym.  The gym would be crowded and hot – not the best venue for my daughter’s big day. Also, we were having a post-graduation party for family and friends outside at our home.  So, I did what any other dad would do.  I carefully monitored the local weather forecast on TV and the internet on www.weather.com.  

Oh, yeah, I prayed too.  But, Ashton was the one who was in charge of the prayers.  We had called her our weather prayer warrior for years.  Whenever we had a trip or family outing planned, we would put Ashton in charge of praying for good weather.  None of us could ever remember an event where she had prayed for good weather and we did not get it.  But, the power of her weather prayers was about to be put to the test.

On Friday morning the weather looked pretty good.  There was sunshine, with only a few clouds.  I sent Ashton a Facebook message with a Youtube link to the song Perfect Day from Legally Blonde.  Ashton likes that movie and I thought some of the lyrics were most appropriate: “You’ll hear me say, Now don’t you try to rain on my Perfect day, Nothing’s standing in my way On this perfect day, Nothing can go wrong…”  I was at the high school cafeteria that morning for a Gideon Bible distribution to the graduating seniors and had the opportunity to hear Ashton pray before the senior breakfast.  She ended the prayer with a request that God hold back the rain for the graduation exercises.  There was no doubt about it – “Elijah” had publically, for all her classmates to hear, asked her great God to give them good weather for graduation.  After lunch, the cloud cover increased, and by mid-afternoon some pretty ominous clouds started rolling in.  I alternated praying and checking the forecast on the internet, where they broke the forecast down into 15 minute intervals.  It was a real roller coaster ride – one hour with the forecast showing a dramatic reduction of the percentage and the next showing a sharp increase in the chance showers. 

Ashton started getting texts from her friends asking her what would they do if it rained.  She reassured them that it would not rain, because she had been praying about it.  But after it rained hard at our house for a couple of hours just a few hours before we were to leave, I started to have my doubts.  On TV the weather report was indicating a thunderstorm with hail not far from Bremen.  We called Terri’s mother, who lives in Bremen, and she said they had gotten a hard rain.  Ashton sent a text message blast out to all her Christian friends urging them to pray in one accord for the weather.  I said another prayer myself, but I’m pretty sure it contained a good ‘ole Baptist unbelief buffer in there of “if it be in accordance with Your will…” At 5:42 P.M., Ashton sent the following Facebook message: “Have a little faith guys! Let’s all unite in prayer for the rain to go away for our graduation! “We have not because we ask not.’” She was really putting her faith out on the line here.

I went down to our basement to get something and when I returned upstairs, the rest of my family was standing at the front door looking out with their hands outstretched toward the heavens.  I didn’t even have to ask what was going on – they were rebuking the clouds.  And shortly afterwards the dark skies to the south (where the weather was coming from) began to clear.  I was relieved.  So, what did www.weather.com have to say about this miracle in the making?  I was so very disappointed as I read there was an 85% chance of thundershowers at 7:00 P.M. and it only dropped to 65% at 8:00, the start time for graduation. On Facebook one person had sent a message, “It looks like graduation will be in the gym.” I told Terri, but I did not have the heart to share this with Ashton.  It was now about 6:30, and we were just about to leave.  

As we began our 15 minute drive to the football field, it was still sprinkling rain, and we still did not know if the ceremony was going to be inside or outside.  But the closer we came to Bremen the dryer the roads appeared. It looked like it had hardly rained at all.  The lights were on at the stadium – that was a good sign.  And then people were going in the gates at the football field, yea, so far, so good.

Ashton went to meet with the other graduates and we went to find good seats.  We found some (and that in itself was a miracle for another story).  We sat in our 40 yard line seats with all-smiles as we witnessed a truly God-honoring graduation.  There were three student-led heartfelt prayers.  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit had obviously received invitations and were welcomed guests at this high school graduation.  The retiring superintendent almost preached a sermon (he was a Baptist pastor).  It was amazing.  You would have thought it was a private Christian School or a revival service somewhere, rather than a public school commencement.  And Ashton’s Valedictorian speech was great!  But probably even greater was her witness to her classmates as she demonstrated the power of prayer – not a drop of rain fell throughout the entire graduation ceremony or during the post-graduation party at our house.

I was one proud parent!  I was certainly proud of Ashton’s many academic accomplishments, but I was even more proud of the public stand she took in praying for good weather.  Long after her classmates have forgotten the wise words from her speech, they will still remember the power of the prayers of Ashton and her other Christian classmates.

I believe God honored the prayers of His people because they honored Him.  I was reminded of a scene from the old movie, Chariots of Fire.  In the movie, Eric Liddell, a Scottish track star in the 1926 Olympics who was also a missionary to China, was given a note before his 400 meter race which read, “It says in the good Book, ‘He that honors me, I will honor.’ Good luck.”  Liddell went on to win the gold medal in the 400 meters.  The actual passage from Scripture reads, “But now the LORD says: ‘Far be it from Me; for those who honor Me I will honor, and those who despise Me shall be lightly esteemed.” (1 Samuel 4:20)

Recently, Terri had been leading a series in our church life group on the book, The Power of the Praying Parent.  As we had gone through this several week study, it became increasing clear to me that so many of the blessings our children had experienced were directly tied to the many prayers prayed over them.  In Philippians 4:6 we are told, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.”  Terri had shared with the class something she heard Beth Moore say about this verse.  We would not be instructed to pray about everything unless everything could be affected by prayer.  And did you know that in the original Greek, the word for “everything” means EVERYTHING?  It is a pretty all–inclusive term which includes every single thing – even the weather.  My Valedictorian daughter taught me that on the day she graduated from high school.

 

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