I learned a valuable lesson one day when my oldest son was around 4 years old. I decided to take him to play golf with me. We could get outside and enjoy a little fresh air and he didn't know how good golfers were supposed to be yet so it was perfect.
Somewhere around the third hole, my son comes up to me with complete joy in his eyes. He had a bonding with nature moment. He holds out his finger and with utter excitement tells me, "Look daddy I found a fly". As I look down at his little finger I notice that on the end of it is not fly but in fact a huge bee. Automatically I try to warn my son but as soon as I tell him to shake it off the bee, sensing my threat, defends his newly acquired territory and stings my son right on the tip of his finger.
Now my son's face has transformed from that of wonder and amazement at his close encounter with another species to horror at the thought that this fuzzy little creature could cause so much pain and destruction to his body. As he looks at me tears begin to well up on his face and he lets out this wail that I have heard many times with my boys indicating their dissatisfaction with life.
As I begin to try to console my son, in the back of my mind I know that he is going to be ok, but he doesn't know that. To him, he is going to die at the hands of a sinister little insect bent on taking over the world one finger at a time. Finally, after exhausting all of my calming techniques, I ask him, "Just what do you want me to do!" Without missing a beat he screams, "PRAY DAD PRAY!"
Here I am, the man of faith and power, the one who people come to for guidance and prayer, and the one thing that I could do, the one thing my son wanted me to do, was the last thing that I thought to do. My son had heard enough sermons, enough lessons to know that there is power in prayer. So I prayed for him. I prayed a prayer of faith, power and victory. I prayed a prayer of healing and restoration. I prayed a prayer of vengeance for that evil bee that terrorized my son. We had revival on the golf course that day.
And believe it or not, it worked. By the time we reached the green he was healed. He looks at me with tear residue on his face but smiling and says, "Dad, I'm all better now. Your prayer worked." From that day on, he has believed in the power of prayer. Now you may say that he was eventually going to be ok and that bee sting pain eventually goes away but I am here to tell you that he was healed and that God heard that prayer and touched him that day.
So no matter how big or how small your "sting" may be, just take my son's advice. PRAY, PRAY, PRAY. And if you see a fuzzy brown and yellow bee buzzing around the Hobbs Country Club, tell him to watch his back cause we are still looking for him.
