Popsicle Prayers

The innocent sincerity of a child's faith as he kneels in fervent prayer, pleading with his Heavenly Father to help him find a missing kitten or his favorite toy car has brought to each a tear or a tugged heart string. As wise and experienced adults we know that answers to these simple prayers are small building blocks of faith that will become the foundation to a greater faith. We assume that soon a child's entreaty will give way to more "important" prayers as problems begin to reach beyond the loss of a toy. As adults we pray for help and deliverance through our most challenging times. We plead with our Heavenly Father for comfort after the loss of a loved one. We pour out every fear of failing health, financial crisis, and physical safety. Our prayers remain sincere and necessary, but they lose the innocent faith of childhood.

I recently heard the story of a man who, in the midst of an "adult problem", found himself pleading with his Heavenly Father with the faith and innocence of a child, offering a Popsicle Prayer.

This young family of five found themselves blindsided by the failing health of their oldest daughter. At the age of 10, this young girl's liver had begun to metastasize. Without a transplant the failure of this vital organ would eventually lead to an early death. While awaiting a miracle, this girl and her family braved numerous surgeries and medical treatments to stem the liver failure and deal with it's symptoms. One such treatment was particularly painful and included the use of numerous IV lines. At this point in her treatments, the young girl had been poked with hundreds of needles, but she was still afraid of the pointed metal and struggled against receiving an IV. Her father watched helplessly, with a prayer of increased urgency in his heart, as his young daughter pleaded for the IVs to stop and underwent the painful treatment.

After the treatment, the young girl awoke with one simple request: a Popsicle. Her father would have done anything to give his daughter a Popsicle but more blood tests were to follow and doctors forbade the cold treat. Even after bravely fighting through hours of IVs and treatments, his daughter couldn't eat a Popsicle. After hours of hearing her simple plea for a Popsicle, this man knelt in the corner of his daughter's hospital room and plead with his Heavenly Father not for his daughter's health or life but simply for a Popsicle. He recalls that the countless hours his family spent on their knees praying for strength, peace, and health all paled in fervency to this one simple prayer. Rising from his knees, the man saw the doctors returning with the test results and great news: his daughter could have a Popsicle.

Months after the Popsicle, and with the prayers of hundred's, this little girl received a liver transplant. She and her family are eternally grateful for her young life, medical technologies, and enduring faith, but, as the man explains, they are most grateful for the tender mercies in their lives, for every Popsicle.

Undoubtedly our Heavenly Father wants us to pray for every need we have, most of which are a little bigger than a Popsicle, however no prayer is insignificant or unworthy in the sight of He who created and loves each of us. He admonishes each of us to become "as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him" (Mosiah 3:19). So, pray to find your lost keys, pray for the strength to understand that math problem, or pray that your hands will stop shaking next time you give a talk. With the innocence of a child, with complete faith that Heavenly Father will hear and answer, perhaps, like this faithful man, we must all offer a few more Popsicle Prayers.