The following is a part of a meditation series that I write with my wife, called Somedays’ Meditations. We started it in our home parish for our tweens, and we thought it would be helpful to folks online as well. You can read the meditations here, or you can visit https://christchurchmanlius.org/somedays-meditations to see them as a collected volume.

Spend your reflection time reading Genesis 18:1-15, (21:1-7). Read it over once, sit in silence for a little time (maybe count up to thirty slowly) and then read it again. Try to answer these questions:

• How do you think Sarah felt in this story?
• How do you think Abraham felt?
• Have you ever waited for something that you really, really wanted, and maybe you waited just a bit too long for it? What was it, and how did it make you feel to wait all that time?

Then, talk with your parents about these answers and think about the following questions:

• Why do you think God waits to answer some of our prayers?

This is a big question, so don’t worry if you don’t think of an answer very quickly, or even if you and your parent can’t think of an answer. There are many questions in life that we can only answer by living through good times and bad times. The answers that we get aren’t usually easy answers but are a general sense of what God hopes for and wishes for us as his beloved children. This kind of answer is called “wisdom.”