Hallowed Be Thy Name

By Marsha Brickhouse Smith
Guest Columnist

CBN.com --I walked into the chapel, the only light in the room were the flickering candles on the altar. I knelt in prayer as tears rolled down my cheeks. In my hands were news clippings of school shootings, riots -- pictures of our children being terrorized in their own schools.

"Father, hear my prayer. In this world there is so much anguish, so many hurting hearts. Please look down on this earth filled with the children you love and help us. Be our light in the darkest of nights.

Help our nation. Heal our land. Comfort those that mourn. Dear Lord be with our children in our schools. Help us, oh God I pray."

I closed my eyes as I heard Him speak these words. The voice was like that of the sound of many waters, yet in it was such love, such a healing power, and such peace.

My Child, I have heard your prayer this day, and I have seen my children as they call out to me. Years ago, my children in the schools used to pray to me, before they were told to cease. And in that prayer they prayed, 'Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

And my love was there. And my peace was there, for in the hearts of the children I dwelt. Then came the day they took prayer out of schools and told the children they could not bring me into the classroom. They told the children they could not pray out loud, that they could not talk about me or about their faith in the classroom.

But today I am asking them to bring me back into the classroom ... to listen to my Words, to teach the children about me, and to let the children pray.

For as the children pray, 'Hallowed be thy name' My kingdom will come, and on the earth my will shall be done, just as it is in heaven.

For these children are the hope of tomorrow. They are the future of your land. You must teach the children to pray. And I will hear from heaven. I will heal the land, and my kingdom will come on earth. It will be in the hearts of the children, and in the hearts of their children.

Teach the children to pray, and then pray with the children ... "Our Father Who Art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy Name..."

And listen carefully as you pray, for you might hear the angels sing!"

As I looked up at the painting above the altar, it was a picture of the Lord praying in the Garden. It was then I realized I had knelt on hallowed ground and heard from the one whose name is hallowed.

Let us all begin today, in our hearts, in our schools, in our work places, let the prayer we prayed in our schools years ago begin to live anew in our heart today!

Our Father who Art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name...