In our Sunday school class recently, our pastor was sharing about what he overheard in the senior citizens’ Sunday school class. Their class is filled with elderly men and women who are probably around our grandparents’ age and our pastor said when it came time to share prayer requests, one 80-year old mother asked for prayer for her 50-year old son who had fallen away from the Lord. Our pastor’s point was to encourage us in that this parenting thing doesn’t end when our kids turn 10 or 18 or 35, but as long as we’re alive and our kids are alive, we’ll always be driven to our knees to pray for them – it’s just that the requests change as the milestones change.

Right now, there is one prayer request for E that weighs very heavily on my heart.

I want E to have a friend. A real friend. Not a “friend” who she’s familiar with because I facilitate very coordinated play dates. Not a friend who’s just a friend by default due to proximity or because I’m friends with their mothers. I want E to have a real friend, who has the patience, tenacity and right type of personality for someone on the autism spectrum (a very sweet, lovable & funny someone, might I add!).

That’s what my mommy heart wants the most for my daughter right now. Someone who will eat lunch with her at school because she likes sitting with E. Someone who will pick E to do group projects with because she thinks E has good ideas.

I wonder how the Lord will answer this prayer request I have. And in the future, maybe when this is not such a big issue for me, I wonder what the next milestone I’ll be praying for will be. I know that as a mom, I’ll never stop praying for my kids – either of them – but I do wonder what the subject of those prayer requests will turn into.