Carol Kent is an international speaker and best-selling author. She and her husband, Gene, run the ministry Speak Up for Hope, which seeks to encourage prisoners and their families.
“Readiness for God means that we are prepared to do the smallest thing or the largest thing—it makes no difference.” (April 18)
It was a season of sadness. Following two and a half years and seven postponements of my son’s trial, he was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison, without the possibility of parole.2 Wallowing in grief and self-pity, I began spending less time in the Bible and even less time in prayer. My son, a US Naval Academy graduate, had done the unthinkable: he shot and killed his wife’s first husband. There could be no do-overs. There could be no happy ending.
I had always been quick to do what felt like the “big things” for God—speaking, writing books, or challenging participants at a leadership conference. That felt like important work that deserved my time. But what would it look like for me, the mother of a prisoner with a life sentence, to do “the smallest thing”?
My attitude and my outlook began to change. I came to understand that “the smallest thing” in my view is often “the largest thing” in God’s eyes. Before I left for prison visitation, I prayed, “Lord, help me to have a divine encounter with one of the families of inmates today.” As I approached the prison driveway, I began praying with authority, “Father, may your presence be felt all over the prison…
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