Is anything too hard for God? Is anything too insignificant to ask for?

I taught high school for years and now I teach 3rd grade. Let me tell you, third graders don’t think ANYTHING is off limits with prayer requests. Some of the requests I get are for good weather, birthdays, to have fun, to get rewards for good behavior, to help a little sister not cut everything with scissors, healing, that covid will go away forever, etc. They pray for everything. And if they are disappointed about a prayer not being answered quickly or the way they thought, they are unfazed. They will pray about it again the next day and day after day for weeks.

Today my daughter has a field trip. It’s an outdoor field trip. Yesterday every time I checked the weather report it read “80-90% chance of rain”. I started looking at the hourly forecast every 30 minutes and it showed 40% chance of showers in the morning and higher the rest of the day. Now I have secured a substitute for my class and made big plans to accompany my little one on the field trip and my hopes have been way up. So I channeled the childlike faith and prayed the rain clouds would move back. I prayed every time I looked at the weather forecast. It was discouraging all day and into the night but guess what? Today it is cloudy and partly sunny and the rain is forecast to come later in the afternoon (about the time the field trip ends).

In the New Testament Jesus advised his followers to be more like the children and to not turn them away. Kids are very consuming and as adults in charge of them we often seek “breaks”–and that’s okay. I’m writing this during one such break. But sometimes we leave them out of worship services and Bible studies because they are bouncy and attention seeking. We are at great risk of learning the best lessons in faith when we do that. I’m so glad I led my students to become the prayer leaders in my classroom because now the areas of adulthood that threaten to weaken my faith are made stronger by observing their pure faith. Today I knew that God is good whether we had rain or sunshine–but I was empowered to believe that it was okay to ask and hope for favor with the weather. I’m so thankful that favor was granted!

Prayer is powerful no matter how significant or insignificant you think the prayer request is. Prayer moved the rain clouds today. How much more so can prayer move hearts?