"When Father Prayed"

I read this story from the life of Bishop Frank Warner a few years ago and it touched my heart.  How blessed are the homes where there is a praying father, and how blessed are the children who are the recipients of those prayers!

     "One evening at the setting of the sun, when I was a boy of about 13, my father said to me, 'Water the stock.'  Soon some boys arrived, and I forgot my work and played.  A little later my father asked, 'Have you done what I told you?'
     'Yes, Father,' I replied.
      Father knew that I had not, and even now I recall how he said not a word, but walked away so burdened and bowed because of hearing a lie from his own boy that it suddenly gave him the appearance of an old man.  The boys left, and I watered the stock.  Then I forgot it, went to bed and slept.  The next day Mother said to me, 'Do you know that your father neither went to bed nor slept last night?'
     'No, Mother, I didn't know,' I replied.  'Why didn't he sleep?'
     'Your father spent the night praying for you.'
      My mother's words and tears went through my heart like an arrow and rang a bell in my heart.  I became powerfully convicted of sin.  Just following that, a series of revival meetings was held in our church.  I became a seeker and had no rest until I found it in repentance and a consciousness of pardoned sin.  The revival services continued several weeks, and I was the only convert.  The critics said, 'He will backslide.  The revival is a failure.'
      How can I be sufficiently grateful for such a father and such a home?  How could I ever reward my father for that night of prevailing prayer?  I never could, but God rewarded him by letting him live to see his boy become a minister, a missionary, and a missionary bishop.
      I believe that my father prayed until God sent conviction through the Holy Spirit, and sin became such an unbearable burden that I gladly yielded my will to the will of God and prayed until my sins were pardoned, the burden was removed, and I was genuinely converted.
      It is my hope and prayer that the story of my father's night of prevailing prayer may encourage other fathers to pray as he did.  I believe the same Heavenly Father will hear their cry!"

"I'm thankful, dear Heavenly Father, that You see every father today who is praying for his children.  I pray that you would bless them, encourage them, help them to be strong and courageous -- men of God who fear none but Thee, and fathers who can say with the Apostle Paul---"Follow me, as I follow Christ!  In Jesus' name I humbly pray, Amen."