In all things, through prayer...

Wednesday night at church, I was in the class that I now teach with three of the students. It's a young class, aging from 3.5 to 5.

At the beginning I asked the kids if they had anything we needed to pray about or people we needed to pray for. Requests included prayers for boo-boos and for an uncle in the hospital. After opening in prayer, we were about to get started on our lesson when the oldest child pointed to my lip and said, "You've got somethin' on your lip."

I explained to him that it's a fever blister that is going away. I've had it since the day we came back from Ecuador. It seems like every time my face gets sunburned, I get one. And apparently, SPF 50 isn't high enough for this fair-skinned chick when I'm that close to the equator.

This little boy questions me, "Why didn't you pray for yourself, for it to go away?"

Hmm. Why didn't I? I guess because I've had it a couple of weeks, it's going away, and it's just one of those things. Bottom line: I didn't think about it. So I answered, "Hmm. I don't know. I guess we could have, huh?"

To which he replied, "We can. I can do it."

Then the other children piped up that they could pray for it/me, too. So they did. One by one, they requested that my fever blister go away soon so I could feel better. It was very sweet.

And maybe I'm just imagining it, but it certainly seems like the healing time has sped up since then.

The teacher became the student Wednesday.

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

Philippians 4:6