A Father's Prayer

I felt a little discouraged today. Don't know why I couldn't seem to get all my Sunday school class' attention. I wonder if I have been too "friendly" and loose with them all these years--and they know me too well... It was even harder when I already lost my voice and I couldn't shout over them! Grrrrrr..... >_<

Anyways, in the preparation of today's class - I was reading a few famous prayers. It really has been a journey itself trying to "feel" what the author was going through when he/she penned the prayer down... particularly moving is "A Father's Prayer" by General MacArthur--the way he prayed for his son. I can probably imagine that every believing parent at some point in his/her life has prayed this type of prayer before--and how powerful it is, to pray for a path not of ease and comfort, but one under stress and difficulties so that his character can be developed, so he can stand the storms to come!! So often we pray in the midst of troubles that God will lift us out of them--how much more difficult to pray for storms for someone who you love and care so much?? And have that faith that God will carry him/her through?

Wow.

***
A Father’s Prayer
by General Douglas MacArthur
Build me a son, O Lord, who will be strong enough
To know when he is weak and brave enough to face himself when he is afraid;
One who will be proud and unbending in honest defeat,
And humble, and gentle in victory.
Build me a son whose wishes will not take the place of deeds;
A son who will know Thee – and that to know himself is the foundation stone of knowledge.
Lead him, I pray, not in the path of ease and comfort, but under the stress and spur of difficulties and challenge. Here, let him learn to stand up in the storm; here let him learn compassion for those that fail.
Build me a son whose heart will be clear, whose goal will be high,
a son who will master himself before he seeks to master other men,
one who will reach into the future, yet never forget the past.
And after all these things are his, add, I pray, enough of a sense of humor,
so that he may always be serious, yet never take himself too seriously.
Give him humility, so that he may always remember the simplicity of true greatness,
the open mind of true wisdom, and the meekness of true strength.
Then I, his father, will dare to whisper, "I have not lived in vain."
( This reflection was written by General MacArthur, during his early days in the Phillipines during the Pacific War, and was left as a spiritual legacy to his son Arthur. Made public after the general’s death in 1964.)