I know there's something I'm supposed to be doing...

"your faith without your works"

James 2:18

You know what's one of my favorite times of day?  When I go in to my kids' bedrooms to kiss them good-night.  I don't really get to "tuck them in" very often.  Only on the coldest nights, and even, they're pretty much tucked in the way they want to be.  Oh, they might let me pull the covers up around their chins, but they're gonna put them back the way they want them as soon as I leave the room. 

And that's okay.  Sometimes we go through the charade anyway.  Good kids humor their mother, don't you think?

But I love those few moments with each of them.  We talk a little bit, sometimes about something that's bothering them, or something that went wrong that day, and sometimes about something fun they want to share. 

And I always remind them to pray.  They don't always need reminding, but, well, habits are hard to break sometimes...

Well, a few nights ago, during that dark and whispery time, my Amazing Boy was telling me about a difficult friend.  Someone who, was not being a good friend, is a better way of putting it.  He had hurt my boy's feelings a little bit, and we were talking about the fact that we sometimes have people in our lives that we wish we didn't.  Or that we wish were different in some way.

As I left his room, I reminded my Amazing Boy that he needed to pray for his friend.  But you know what?  I didn't pray for his friend.  I was the epitome of James 2.

James 2 is the passage that talks about faith and works.  "For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also." (verse 26)  You know the passage?  How about verse 15 ~ that's the one that was ringing in my head the next day ~ "If a brother or sister is unclothed and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, 'Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,' but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit?"

I recognized that there was a need, but I didn't do anything about it.  Worse, I recognized that there was a need for prayer, and did nothing about it. 

I remind my children to pray, but I have a long way to go, myself. 

~ "Brethren, pray for us" ~

1 Thessalonians 5:25