Children remind us why we pray for them.

“These guys blew me away. They’re full of kindness, empathy, compassion, and love — and they’re only in junior high. As a parent, I hope to raise my kids to care about others like these boys do. The future is a brighter place with them in it.”

This fills my heart with so much hope and joy. It was written by a parent to introduce a video of middle-school football players from Michigan who came up with an idea to show a friend of theirs that they cared about him and how important his happiness is to them. What they showed everyone else is their generosity of spirit, creativity in goodness, and courage in the face of potential disapproval.

See for yourself, click here.

The world news reports these days tell us much about children at risk in war, poverty, health, education, and social injustice. If you are like me, there is a lot on your prayer agenda for the world’s children. The spiritual qualities that children inherently express – innocence, purity, receptivity to love, joy, spontaneity – remind us adults of our better nature, therefore children must be protected and supported by whatever means available. I have confidence in the power of prayer to inspire anyone to do what is right for children.

Every day I pray to understand more about each child’s spiritual origin and their inseparable nature from divine Love, no matter what the physical picture portrays. In fact, my prayers must be firmer especially when the picture is so dire. The spiritual law governing the life and experience of our children must supersede anything and everything opposed to Love’s goodness and all presence and super power. All of the spiritual healings I have witnessed assure me and confirm that the law of Love and Life never cease operating!

Do my prayers and your prayers have an effect ‘out there’ beyond our personal view and experience? Oh I believe they do…all the spiritual prayers and thoughts and meditations unite with the influence for good from the Supreme Being, permeate our spiritual atmosphere and support right thinking and right acting. Nothing can stand up to this divinely-based influence for good. Mary Baker Eddy describes this powerful influence as ‘divinity embracing humanity,’ and I believe we can and should expect to see the practical effect and evidence of this everyday.

So, back to the video. What inspired all of these awesome kids to think and act as one with this goal: “We have to make someone happy…This is Keith’s time…”? Their inherent goodness, embraced by an influential divine atmosphere, I believe is what inspired, guided, protected, and uplifted them all.

One of the boys later admitted, “I went from being somebody [who] cared about myself…to caring about everyone and trying to make everyone’s day.” This is definitely worth praying for.

When Mary Baker Eddy dedicated her church in Boston in the late 19thcentury, she paid special homage to the children whose goal was to contribute whatever they had earned on their own to their church community. Individually, it was pennies – but collectively, it was a sizeable amount for the time. Eddy was so awed by their selfless dedication and generosity that she put on record in her sermon, “Ah, children, you are the bulwarks of freedom, the cement of society, the hope of our race!”

These dear boys from Michigan contributed what they had – their open hearts and divine natures – to bless their friend, each other, and their community. Another good reason to pray for our children.

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Virginia Harris is a practitioner and teacher of Christian Science spiritual healing with an office in Wellesley. She was on the faculty of Harvard Medical School’s symposium ‘Spirituality & Healing in Medicine’ and today is a public speaker to medical audiences. More from Ginny at www.VirginiaHarris.com.