A very good prayer to pray

During Sunday School class this morning, a friend mentioned that she had been having a rough time with her kids lately. No matter what punishment she and her husband handed out, nothing seemed to be curbing the insurgence going on in their house. She phrased it in an interesting way, though, and it caught the attention of the other parents in the class. She was praising God that her kids were getting caught. The more we thought about it, the more it made sense. We *ought* to pray for our kids to get caught every single time they do something wrong. After all, it's easier to curb bad behavior when they're younger and bad behavior can lead to terrible consequences. An older mother in our class said she prayed that prayer for her children constantly as they were growing up and no matter *what* they did, God made sure they were caught every time. Just like her son, your kids may hate you for that prayer, but they will be safer and wiser the more they learn from getting caught.

The woman who originally brought up the issue pointed us to a Proverbs 31 devotional responsible for her change of perspective this week. I found the devotional on-line, so you can read more about it. http://proverbs31devotions.blogspot.com/2008/01/getting-caught.html As the writer says, it's much easier to discipline your child for getting a ticket than mourning him because he wasn't caught before he ran into a tree.