A teacher said, “I pray daily for my family,
That they will be delivered from the evil one.”
I don’t want to hear that.
When we moved, I prayed for protection every day.
One day I didn’t, and something happened,
So bad I have blocked it from my memory.
Who wants momentary forgetfulness
To be the opening for attack?
No one needs that pressure!
So I quit altogether, preferring no prayer
To the guilt that I caused something bad
By my imperfection.
Five years later, I can see that classic human response,
A swing from one extreme to another.
If I can’t pray perfectly, daily, I won’t ever.
Now, flipping through my story of those early months,
I can see that there was no lack of hard things.
We had head injuries, animal issues, persistent poison ivy.
So although I prayed, life still happened.
And even if I pray daily for the rest of my life,
My loved ones will all one day die.
Perhaps that is the ultimate deliverance from the evil one.
God is at work. I can choose to participate.
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