A Mother's Prayers

“But on the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person’s work has any value. If the work survives, that builder will receive a reward. But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss. The builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames” (1 Cor. 3:13-15).

“If the work survives, that builder will receive a reward.” That’s the kind of mother work I want to invest in, the enduring kind. The kind of work that isn’t washed away with the next wave, that isn’t tinder for the next match. What survives a fire? This house won’t. Abba Paul’s baskets didn’t. But what he wove with the baskets did: prayer.

So a mother kneels. So a mother gets up and works and prays, prays and works. Because the prayers we weave into the matching of socks, the stirring of oatmeal, the reading of stories, they survive fire.Aren’t the prayers of our days more important than the products of our days?And the prayers are the genesis of all that can withstand the flames: love, patience, faith, joy, hope. Our prayers make our work acts of praise; our prayers make our work acts of passion for these people living here. These people we love more than life."

~Excerpt taken from
http://www.aholyexperience.com/2008/12/what-withstands-fire-open-letter-to.html