The power of your prayers - a big THANK YOU

Those of you who pray for me are such a blessing. Several folks emailed or posted on Facebook, offering prayer for my preaching this morning.

Also, my wife and I pray together before bedtime, currently using a form supplied by the monks of Blue Cloud Abbey (near Marvin, SD) of which my wife is an Oblate. One of the intercessions was for "fire for those who will preach in the morning."

Well, the many prayers were answered.

We have an autistic son, Joey. With autism comes a lack of empathy (autism from auto for "self," those on the autism spectrum have some real social impairments). One of his habits is to wake up in the wee hours, to go to the bathroom, to get a drink, or just because. He thinks nothing of throwing on lights, banging around, talking to himself at some volume and otherwise depriving us of sleep.

As you can imagine, this is most unwelcome for a preacher who has to be up and running on a Sunday morning.

Well, early this morning, Joey got up. I heard him slide a drawer in his room (he likes to change shirts). I got that "Aw (blank)" feeling in the pit of my stomach and started to get up...

And then Joey did something he's never done. He walked softly down the hallway and closed our bedroom door. His bathroom light would not shine in my eyes. Any sounds would be muffled. I fell back to sleep and woke up fresh - and will be preaching in just a bit.

Thank God for people who pray. Thank God for answering prayers. And thank God for sending the Holy Spirit with that little bit of gentleness and self-control for Joey this morning.