The other day I received a text from my wife. She said our daughter had reached a new level of bullheadedness. Then she asked me to pray for her. From the punctuation and tone of the overall message, I could tell she was halfway joking. But after I chuckled, I realized I needed to deal with the halfway serious side of the matter.
The matter is this: Our daughter can be bullheaded. And if we don’t pray for her and learn how to steer that, we’ll have some very tough years ahead of us. It’s not that bullheadedness is entirely a bad thing. It’s just that it needs to be harnessed and directed toward the right things.
So I prayed something like this, “God, I love Sevaeh and I know Hannah does too. And Lord, I know You love her even more than we do. I’m thankful that You’ve brought it to our attention that Sevaeh has a stubborn streak. I’m also thankful that right now, it’s pretty easy to handle. So Lord, I ask, ‘As she grows up, would You help us to direct that stubbornness in the right direction?’ When boys come around, acting like dogs, may she be stubborn about not conceding to their wishes. When serious relationships develop, may she be stubborn about keeping her virginity until marriage. When she comes into a relationship with You, may she be stubborn about believing in You, may nothing deter her from her relationship with You. And Lord, when it comes to obeying her parents and doing right and having integrity in her schoolwork and in her future jobs, may she be stubborn about doing the good, the right, the noble, the just. Lord help us, we pray. Amen.'”
Omer Redden 