No more nightmares because God answers prayers

Today, my son and I read the Bible story of the ten lepers who were healed by Jesus (Luke 17:12-19).  Of the ten who were miraculously healed, only one came back to say "thank you".  In the busyness of life, do we stop to thank the Lord for answering our prayers or do we go about our lives with our new blessing leaving Him behind?

Even the smallest of prayers can be life changing.  I remember the time my pet bunny, Peaches, developed an ear infection.  I was only slightly older than my daughter at the time.  I prayed for the Lord to give me a cure to heal my bunny. The next day in music class, a friend noticed a worried look on my face and asked me what was wrong.  I told her about Peaches and how helpless I felt since I did not know how to help her.  This friend recommended putting a few drops of baby oil in each ear.  They sounded so silly to me, but in faith, I tried it, and my rabbit's ears cleared up within the next few days.  That simple example of answered prayer has stayed with me all these years and given me faith to pray much bigger prayers.

Peaches with our Cocker Spaniel.

Ever since we took our kids to Disney World, my son has been having nightmares.  At Magic Kingdom, we took him on a "journey through the movies" type ride that was presented as a family friendly ride. However, some of the acting scenes involved gangsters, shooting, robberies, and an alien falling from the ceiling.  Last night, my son told me about these nightmares he had been having based on images from that ride.  My heart broke as I remembered having similar nightmares myself at his age after naively watching a vampire movie with my older brother.  I was so fearful of being alone after that movie that I have not watched a single scary movie since that time.  I've always wanted desperately to guard the hearts and minds of our children, and felt both regret and grief for him. I gave him permission to come into our room for comfort if he had another nightmare even though we have worked really hard to teach the children to stay in their beds at night.

Then we immediately bowed down to pray.  We thanked the Lord for His promise to always be with us and to never leave us or forsake us.

"And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." (Matthew 28:20b)

We asked the Lord to take my son's every thought captive.  I asked the Lord to replace all his thoughts of things that are not real with God's truth.  We prayed that his mind would be filled with Philippians 4:8 type thoughts.

"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."  (Philippians 4:8)

Joey never came into our room last night.  He did run up to me this morning, however, to announce that he didn't have a nightmare and was no longer afraid.  Our prayers had been answered.  Thank you, Lord, for Your faithfulness and for taking every opportunity to teach my son to trust You.  Please use this example and all the countless others you have given us to build his faith.