Peace

It always tickles my heart when I read the following passage:

People were bringing little children to Jesus to have Him touch them , but the disciples rebuked them, When Jesus saw this, He was indignant. He said to them, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." And He took the children in His arms, put His hands on them and blessed  them.

My own 7 year old son wrote a prayer this week to read over the announcements at school. He did not inform me of this until the morning of. There is nothing sweeter than the prayer of a child and I was not going to miss out on hearing this, so I readied myself and headed off to school with him with a recording device in tow. When I heard the prayer I was a bit baffled but later realized the significance of the prayer. The prayer was as follows:

Dear Heavenly Father, Bring PEACE to the people that are poor. Stop any wars and we pray for PEACE in the world. We pray that people don't fight but live in PEACE.

Now I don't know about you, but that first line threw me for a moment. I wondered why he would ask for God to bring peace to the poor instead of asking  him to bring food, clothes, shelter etc...and then it hit me like a brick, if we have everything we could ever want, but do not have the peace of God within our hearts, we would not be content and at peace enough to enjoy the things God has intended for us. A heart that contains the peace of God is the treasure of all treasures... and it took a 7 year olds prayer to highlight that point to me..."The Kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these" When was the last time you approached God with a child-like heart?... See him through child-like eyes today and let Him wrap you in His arms and bless you...In those arms PEACE preavails...

In honor of the sweet and special children around the world, I would like to send up a special prayer on behalf of Emma, Sammy & Jacob...

Lord God Almighty, put to flight any hinderance that would try to prevail over the peace that is intended for these sweet hearts. May they love you, draw close to you and know you always as the Lord of their lives. May they know how beautiful and special they are to you. May your love abound and caudle their hearts, that innocense may be kept alive with pure belief in you...In your name, Jesus I ask and believe...

May we all hold tight to the innocence of childhood and the wisdom of age....