Pray for the Prince! (A guest post from Heather’s mom)

It’s a privilege to share this Monday with my first-ever guest blogger… Lutricia Menges, my mom.  The Lord shows her treasures in the moments you and I are often quick to miss.  It’s her tender heart combined with years in the ministry that make her insight uniquely motivating.  When she speaks, it’s always worth the listen…

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…Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.

Ephesians 5:14

 

When Heather, our brilliant blogger, was four years old, I took her to see the movie “Sleeping Beauty”.  The Princess had fallen under the spell of the evil queen and now lay asleep in the tower.  All the while, that deep trance battled against any hope of her rescue, causing all her subjects to also slumber and a thick wall of thorns to grow stubbornly around the village.

Ultimately, the handsome Prince rode up on his majestic white horse to save the day!  The music swelled as he bravely swung his sword back and forth, cutting through the thick hedge of thorns and fighting off the fire-breathing dragon.

Heather sat on the edge of her seat.  Eyes wide… heart pounding.  Finally, her tiny frame simply couldn’t take it anymore, she leapt to her feet, calling out to the other movie goers… “Pray for the Prince!”  “Pray for the Prince!”

I could hear other Mom’s all over the dark theater quietly chuckling at her earnest attempt to save the Princess.  Needless to say, when the Prince made it past the dragon, through the thorny hedge, and up the tower steps to kiss Sleeping Beauty, Heather felt she… and she alone… had made the difference of life and death for the kingdom.

Little did I know that her cry for help would save ME, 30 years later.

I found myself in the driest season I had ever experienced.  I felt a lot like that Princess.  My spiritual life had slipped into a trance of deep sleep.  Ironically, I had counseled others who’d found themselves in this type of situation before, but nothing was working to save me now.

Going through the motions, I went to church, listened to uplifting music, and tried reading my Bible.  But after a few months of unsuccessful overcoming, I was ready to throw in the towel… or at the very least, my tiara.

BUT THEN, one beautiful spring morning, I awoke to the sweet sound of birds singing outside my window.  Suddenly, I heard Heather’s little voice crying out:  PRAY FOR THE PRINCE!

Immediately, the scene from the movie played in my minds eye, and the Lord started downloading insight into the truth of this dry season.

Sleeping Beauty represented my “Prayer Life” —  It was in a deep sleep.  And just like the villagers in the movie, the other critical defenders of my spiritual walk had also fallen into a stagnant hibernation:  Worship.  Relationships.  Discernment.  Fellowship.  Bible Study…  All seemingly in a comma.

In the movie, only the Prince could awaken Sleeping Beauty.  But I now wondered who represented the Prince in my life?  And why hadn’t he come riding up on his white horse to rescue ME yet?

In a wave of understanding, it hit me all at once.  I am the Prince too!  No one could rescue my prayer life aside from me.  But this prickly hedge of thorns was the distraction keeping me from doing it.  Things like laundry, errands, emails, deep cleaning the bathroom and…well, you get the drift, the list for each of us can seem endless.  To be sure, in our discouragement, the hedge can become thick and dense.

The dragon, however, was easier to figure out.  The enemy of my soul, who desperately wants to keep my spiritual life asleep, fights tirelessly against me.  But I already have the one thing that can keep a dragon at bay – the prince’s sword!  Our sword, of course, is the Word of God, and I needed to dust it off and do some pointed battling.

To be honest, it took me a little while to fight my way through the desperation of that dry season, but I made it!   And now, every time I find my spiritual life drifting off to sleep, I remember Heather’s call for help.  It never fails to keep me on track.

In the words of a profoundly insightful little four-year old girl… May you always remember to:

PRAY FOR THE PRINCE!