We'll All Be Princesses

My little Kingdom Watchers have been on a tear recently.

Little Sister refused to say her prayers one night. She LOVES to pray, and she always includes everyone we know, "the good people, the bad people and the whole world, the trees and the sky. And the flowers." But tonight she was really put out about something.

"Why don't you want to pray?" I asked, puzzled.

"Because I keep asking for the same thing but I never get it. I think God may get mad at me for asking for the same thing over and over."

"What are you asking for?"

I'm thinking, I'll bet it's a puppy. Oh Lord, how am I going to get out of this?

"I want God to come and bring His Kingdom on Earth and get rid of all the sin and make everyone perfect. Right now."

Blown. Away.

Now this kid is a prayer warrior. She has prayed some mighty prayers that I have seen God choose to answer. So, I'm kind of refraining from saying what I want to say, which is - "Do you know what you're praying for?? Ever heard of the Apocalypse?! Quit it!"

But instead, the Holy Spirit moves me to encourage her. To praise her persistence and to acknowledge that God has placed a strong desire in her to pray for this huge thing. He has promised us that it's going to happen. We just don't know when.

So she says, "How is He ever going to do it if He keeps making all these new people who have never heard of Him?"

"Well, honey, I don't know except that He's also making people like you who are going to tell the new people about Him."

A few days later, Big Sister expresses the same sentiment - she too is ready for the Kingdom to come and for everything to be made perfect. Wow, this is really a "thing" for these kids, the desire, the longing, for perfection and the absence of sin. I guess, as a jaded adult, I long ago made peace with the fact that life is far from perfect. Apparently, at some point, I gave up hope that it ever would be or could be. We call that being a "realist," no?

At the time, I was reading a book called "The Prayer Experiment" by Margaret Therkelson. She breaks down the Lord's Prayer, and I happened to be reading the part - Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth as it is in Heaven.
The author touches on two things that I was eager to share with Little Sis. First, the Kingdom is already here! It's inside us, according to Christ. Second, the Kingdom comes through our prayers.

...the heart yearning prayers of the Holy Spirit welling up in our times of prayer...a longing so overwhelming, so passionately powerful, so wistfully crying out for God's Kingdom to come to this broken world. Truly the entire creation is in pain even as we groan within ourselves for Jesus to come and set up His Kingdom here. At times in prayer we are nearly overcome with yearning for Jesus to come! These inexpressible, but powerful prayers are a means of praying in the Kingdom.

Wow. So by their wistful, longing prayers, they are actually praying in th Kingdom. My kids. MY kids. I'm gonna have to take a minute.