What prayer can do

POWER IN OUR DAY-TO-DAY LIVES

- DIANE STARK

HAPPY MEAL

"Time to set the clocks back," my husband, Eric, said on a Saturday last fall, turning to the clock radio on our night table. "Wouldn't want to be early for church tomorrow."

I rolled my eyes at his joke. It was a reference to a childhood prayer of mine, one I'd prayed every Sunday for years. It went back to one fall Sunday when I was six. My parents got us kids ready for services as usual. But when we got to church, the parking lot was empty.

"What's going on?" my mother said.