Thank you, Isaac.

Have you ever wanted to yell, "No" in the middle of a family prayer?

My son Isaac wants to be a doctor. We talk about it all the time. I'm actually bribing him because in Kindergarten I told him that if he would become a doctor, I would pay for his college. Yes, I know I don't have a job, but I REALLY want him to do it. I'll figure something out later. I've actually started to bring up that fact that he could join the military and become a doctor and they would pay for it all. Serving our country is an honorable thing to do--and it would save me a bundle.

Anyway, he started out wanting to be a doctor so he could make people well. Now he wants to be a doctor to be rich. He's always asking me questions about how much doctors make. I estimate and say about a thousand a day. How should I know? Surely there are doctors out there making $365,000 a year--and that's a thousand a day. He's thrilled to know this. He already has plans for his first paycheck. He's going to buy the newest game system there is (right now he really wants a Wii) and a couple of games to go with it "because it would be boring just having one game." He also has promised to give me $100 every time I come and visit him. Even if I visit him everyday, I still get $100. (His idea, not mine.) He really loves me. I've made him promise to give his wife lots of money and make her buy herself new clothes all the time. And hire a maid to help her keep their house clean. Shoot, he'll be able to afford it.

So you see that my conversations with my seven-year-old are not usually based in reality. Especially the ones involving money. So imagine my surprise when in his prayer tonight Isaac said, "Please help us to have the money to ONLY buy the things we need." Now, we've taught our children to pray for the missionaries, church leaders, and even when the occasion arises we pray for our employment situation. But we don't normally pray for money. So why did he say that? If I were to bring up that subject in prayer, it certainly wouldn't be that I could only buy things we need. It would be that I could buy things that I want--that I don't necessarily need.

Let me also say that I really don't know what prompted that prayer. We haven't had any changes in our income and we haven't had any family councils on the subject. Maybe Isaac saw something on TV or in a movie recently. Who knows? But since I did say "Amen" at the end of the prayer, I'm forced to ponder it, and when I do have the money to buy the things we need, I'll have make a point to say a prayer of thanks to my Heavenly Father for answering Isaac's prayer.