This talk was given on June 19, 1974, at a Wednesday night public prayer meeting. Bud Rose talked about taking responsibility for teaching his children to pray, and Sharon Rose shared about the resulting fruit she has seen in their family.
Transcript
This document is a direct transcript of an audio recording, and may contain transcription errors and other minor edits for the sake of clarity.
BUD: We’re Bud and Sharon Rose. We live in a household in the community of People of Praise. There’s myself, my wife, we have four children by the name of: Kevin, Trice, Tami, and Christopher. We have one person who lives with us, who is a young adult, and that is our household right now. We are presently in the process of praying, possibly, that someone else may move into our household.
This evening we would like to share with you how the Lord helped us teach our children to pray. It became apparent—by the way, can everybody hear me?—it became apparent in 1971 that Sharon and I not only had the responsibility for our children’s religious education, but that we had to take an active part in this whole area of Christian guidance.
We had seen the results, in one of our sons, where we relied on someone else in a religious education class to build him up in what we thought was a religious experience. That was the receiving of the Holy Eucharist. We were very disheartened with what we saw. We saw that he was not really taught properly. The person who had done this was an eighth grader who was trying very hard, and gave it all she knew how. It was not her fault. It was ours.
We immediately made the decision to take an active part in their religious education. But at that time, we were not having any particular experience with the Lord ourselves. It was not until January 1972 and the baptism of the Spirit that I started to have this new relationship with the Lord. Sharon had started this relationship about two months prior to that.
The children could definitely see that we were changing our priorities. We were reading the Bible and praying together for the first time! They could also see that instead of parties that we were now going to prayer meetings.
So, for the first point I want to make that it was—that we had to release ourselves to the Lord and make Christ the center of our lives. Then the children had to see that we were depending on the Lord in a real faith, for all our needs. He became the focal point of our lives. We soon realized that the children should be sharing the same kind of relationship with Jesus that we were experiencing. We’d gotten this through the passage in Matthew chapter 18, verses 19-21, where it says, “Where two or more are gathered in my name, I’ll be there amongst you.” And we really knew that that passage was meant for our family. That we as a family had to be there, together, praying to the Lord and asking him to bless us. And we had to give him praise. And that this was not a wife and husband affair, but a family affair. Through spontaneous-type night prayers, we started the children in asking the Lord to bless them and to protect them. This seemed to grow so that soon after, during the daytime, we would have the children pray for any special needs they might have: headaches, cramps, or just a nice day.
The second point is that we were developing a friendship between Jesus and the children. Sharon will share with you how, in one instance, the Lord really showed us he was keeping his word and answering the prayers of his children.
SHARON: This particular instance that Bud is speaking of happened soon after the two of us were baptized in the Spirit. . . . This particular morning, Kevin, our youngest, who was then four, woke up with a terrible case of the flu. And he just kept vomiting and vomiting and vomiting, and it was a consistent thing, and he even couldn’t keep down a glass of water. So finally, after he’d vomited like three times in the span of maybe 20 minutes, I said to him, “Kevin, this is absolutely ridiculous. Jesus does not want you to be sick.” I said, “Let’s pray together and ask him to make you well.” I said, “You pray and ask him to make you better and I’ll pray with you.” So we did this. And we prayed together. I still remember sitting in the rocker and holding him in my arms while we were praying together.
And as we finished praying and asking the Lord to make him feel better, he looked at me and he said, “I’m hungry.” [Laughter.] So I got him a bowl of cereal and some milk and a piece of toast and some jelly and waited. [Sharon laughs.] And there was no adverse reaction! But that wasn’t all: in about a half an hour Bud came home for lunch, and he brought with him a pizza. [Laughter.] Kevin looked at the pizza and he said he wanted some. And he sat there and he ate three pieces of pizza. Again, no adverse reactions.
So that afternoon, as the children came home from school. It was a beautiful day outside and they—Kevin wanted to go outside and play with them. And I said, “Hmm.” He was still in his pajamas. I said, “Kevin, I really don’t think you’d better, you were so sick this morning.” He looked me straight in the eye and he said, “Why not, Mom? Jesus has healed me.” [Laughter.] So that was like a giant step for me. It was a real lesson in faith for me. And as we shared it, what had happened, with our other three children, was a real teaching in faith for them, too. And they began to learn of how much the Lord loved them, how he wanted to care for them. And he wanted to care for every one of their needs, and he didn’t want them to suffer.
BUD: It was not long after this period that we moved to South Bend, and the Lord put us in the hands of his teachers in the People of Praise community at the Wednesday night prayer group. It became apparent that I was not really heading our household and maintaining order that the Lord had set up for us.
So, the third point I want to make is that I had to include, and provide, an opportunity for us to pray as a family in a regular time schedule. I had to set this prayer time up as a top priority. That meant that we had to get up one half hour earlier than normal, to be sure that we made time for the Lord. We tried all different ways, but the Lord just can’t be squeezed into a regular time schedule. And He doesn’t want to be squeezed into a regular time schedule. He wants you to make time for him. And he really taught us that lesson.
So, we made the household agreement to get up at 6:30 and pray till 7:00. And the peculiar thing about that is, we do this every morning now, and, you know, I don’t keep a watch. I don’t wear a watch. And we always end at 7 o’clock. The Lord knows that we can’t go much past that, otherwise we’ll be late.
We have always included our children in all our household prayer time in the last year. We don’t exclude them in any of our prayer time. They are our family, they are our household, and we include them in all our prayers.
Sharon will share with you some of the experiences and fruits that have been born from this prayer time.
SHARON: Our children learned in a hurry that the Lord honored their prayers as they continued to develop their friendship with him. This regular prayer time with the household seemed to make them more aware of his presence without—with them throughout the whole day. And it made it much easier for them to turn to him for their every need.
As they turned to him, and he heard their prayers, we were able to see developing a real trust and reliance on Jesus with them. I’d like to share some of the ways that our Lord used to show them how much he loved them.
Our oldest child, Christopher, used to have strep throat about—at least, at the very least, five times a winter. After he learned the power of prayer, at the earliest sign of a sore throat that he would be having, he’d come to us and ask us to pray with him. And the Lord would heal him. It would never go any farther than that first sign of a sore throat. He learned that he didn’t have to go through the penicillin shots and the trips back to the doctor, and another penicillin shot if it showed that it wasn’t gone.
So since we began to make Jesus the center of our family life, Chris has only needed a penicillin shot for strep throat one time, and that was on a particular occasion. And the Lord really taught him a lesson. And on this one night, when he told us that he had a sore throat, and we started to pray with him, his prayer was “Jesus, I don’t really want to be well enough to go to school tomorrow.” [Laughter.] So you can guess what happened. [Laughter.] Just this past weekend, he confided to us that that was the worst sore throat that he had ever had, with all the strep conditions that he had had. So he had to have the penicillin shots, he had to go through the whole thing. So the Lord really taught him a lesson, and he hasn’t forgotten it. [Laughter.]
On another occasion this past summer, when we were coming back from a trip in Tennessee, all four of our children were being plagued with sore throats. For a couple of days on our vacation they had complained very briefly of a sore throat. But as we started our trip home, and we were traveling in the car, they really started complaining. And so, as we looked at their throats, we could see how red they were and that, we could see also, that they had white spots on the back of their throats, which I’d seen many times in Christopher’s strep condition. And we knew that by the time we got home that evening, it would be very late at night, and it would be too late to call a doctor. So, one by one, as we’re traveling down the freeway, they’d take their turns climbing into the front seat, and we laid hands on them and prayed with them. And the next morning, all four of them had healed throats.
There have been many other occasions, too, in which the Lord has shown them his power and his love. This past winter, Kevin had a bad case of the flu again. And with it he had stomach cramps. And he’d get stomach cramps so badly that he had to double over. And it just came to me as I walked into the kitchen, and he was bent over in pain, for him to use the name of Jesus. The minute he said the name of Jesus, he could stand up and those stomach cramps were gone.
Just Saturday night at the Mass over the weekend, I went with him between—Tami, who’s eight, had a stomach ache just before Communion. And we talked about Jesus healing her with his Body and Blood in Communion. I really believe in the healing power of the Eucharist. And he did just that. After Communion, her stomach ache was gone.
As their lives focused in on Jesus, and began to flow from him, as they continuously now turn their hearts to him more and more, their prayer life deepens, and they can turn to him in even more complex situations. I’m reminded of a few weeks ago when our daughter, who is ten, was trying out for cheerleading, and I felt her anxiety over the situation and knew that anxiety was not of the Lord, that the fruit of his Spirit was peace. So I went in and talked with her and shared about the fact that Jesus had a plan for her life, and that if her becoming a cheerleader would give him more honor and glory and was part of his plan for her life, that she would make cheerleading. If she didn’t make cheerleading, she should still rejoice, because he had something better for her in his plan for her life.
So the immediate result was a beautiful peace in place of this anxiety. It was a beautiful thing to see. She did make cheerleading. And so her next question was, “How can I give God honor and glory by being a cheerleader?” So we sat down again and we talked about how when girls come together in groups—that she now had the responsibility to make certain that their talk was always upbuilding. That if someone happened to be saying something bad about another person or one of their classmates, she had the responsibility to only say good things, and to put in a good word, and to always act as the Lord would expect her to act and as she knew that Jesus wanted her to act.
It has been a truly amazing thing, the relationship the Lord builds when we as parents simply work—as an intermediary between himself and them. They realize quickly how much he loves them and how much he cares for them. And their hearts respond as anyone’s heart responds to love that’s shown them.
BUD: We really could go on and on with sharings of things that happened with our children’s healings. And even this morning my son came to me again with a sore throat, and I prayed with him, and I asked him tonight, I said, “How’s your sore throat?” He said, “It’s gone.” And it’s just really taken as a normal practice now that when anything is wrong, they want to be prayed with for the healing.
So you can see that the Lord provides many outside opportunities for us to pray with the children as we provide the scheduled prayer time and allow him to help us grow as a unit. This prayer is carried over into many aspects of their lives, and allows the Lord to work powerfully in them.
The next and the fourth point is that we must be sure and control the environment that our—that surround [sic] our children. They relate strongly to their peers, and in most cases follow them rather than the adults. This is where the community has played an important part in helping us fulfill our obligation to teach our children to pray. Our children pray and relate in their spare time with community children.
I’d like to share with you how our children actually ask for the baptism of the Spirit. One day last fall, our daughter was playing with the daughter of another community member. The playmate was so—was relating how her mother had prayed with her for the gift of tongues. That evening, our daughter shared with our family, all the other children at home. [Background noise.] The—and the next day they decided that they wanted to have the gift of tongues also.
So Sharon and I explained to them the responsibility of the gift, and that they would receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit if we prayed with them for the gift. In other words, it just wasn’t the gift of tongues that they were asking for, but they were actually asking for the baptism of the Spirit and that they really would have a responsibility once this actually happened.
Three of our children asked for the gift of tongues and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and we prayed with them. They all received the gift. The fourth and oldest wanted us to pray with him, but he would not ask Jesus for the gift. He did not receive the gift and he did not receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit at that time.
Later that evening we heard him crying in bed, and I went up and I asked him what was wrong. He was upset about the fact that he was not given the gift of tongues. I talked to him for a while and told him God loved him very much and wanted him to have the gift, but that he must really want it, and had to ask for it out loud. He did so, and after two to three minutes of praying with him, he received just a fluent gift of tongues, and the Spirit was really there.
We could see that in giving the children the opportunity to pray, that they needed guidance on how to pray. We had already taught them to open their hearts to spontaneous praying, but we had not done much with Scripture or just sitting and listening to the Lord.
The fifth point I’d like to make is that we saw that we must guide them in a format in praying. We must control the environment of the prayer time, to show it is a priority. In other words, this is really a special time in our home. We had to set up a format and we had to set up a priority. This is not something that we take haphazard[ly]. This is number one right now in our home.
We follow a very basic prayer group format for household prayers in the morning. We praise and give glory to the Lord. We sing songs. Everyone reads Scripture passages, and sometimes they will draw out of it what the Lord is telling them. The smallest of the children will do this also. We wait for prophecy, and we’ll sit and listen in silence. We end with prayers of petition, giving Jesus the glory and praise in a thankful way.
Our evening prayer, which follows immediately at the end of dinner, starts with praise and thanksgiving for the day. I then pray for a meaningful teaching that may help us draw from the day’s experiences. We then sing, and have prayers of petition, and then end with a prayer of thanksgiving. In praying for a meaningful teaching this might—this usually is—I pray for a passage, and we try to draw something from a passage that could be used from the day’s experience.
I have not mentioned much about personal prayer, or prayer done in private, but only because it’s so important. I didn’t want it to get mixed up with other forms of praying. The head, the father, must be sure all members of the family are taking and scheduling personal prayer. This is when we—when they talk and listen to the Lord. They’re listening to what the Lord has to say to them. For children, this period cannot be long. It can be but a short time. But it must be.
Also, the children should know that the parents are getting their prayer time in. This is a must: that the children know that the parents are getting their prayer time in. This supports what you tell your children.
So, in summary, in teaching our children that prayer is putting themselves in the presence of Christ, and developing the friendship that is related to every aspect of their life, first, Christ had to be the center of our lives. And then his life was able to flow through us to, secondly, to develop a friendship between Jesus and our children. Thirdly, the father must assume headship and responsibility for scheduling the prayer time for the household. With this goes the responsibility for follow-up, to be sure that all the members are following the schedule that has been set up. Fourth, a healthy Christian environment will enrich the child’s friendship and prayer life with Jesus. The fifth and final point is that all this prayer life must have a format that is orderly and headed.
This whole process takes time. And not any two children react—will react exactly the same, or at the same rate of growth. We must remember, though, that this is a work for the Lord and of the Lord and will be completed in his time and not ours. Thank you. [Applause.]
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