Pictures and Prayers

My sister, Alison is a very gifted writer and speaker. Most people would literally like to jump off a tall building rather than speak in front of any group of people. Individuals who can speak, not just blather, but actually be cohesive and eloquent have no idea what an amazing gift it is. Alison spoke at a writers conference tonight. This conference is put on by herself and some other woman for the second year in a row. It is a group of female Christian writers. Some are published and some are working to be. The whole P. family went to watch her.
I was in a corner with Willa trying to keep her from starting her own speaking engagement and Ren came from the table with David and sat next to me with her crayons and little pad of paper. (This thing was NOT for children!) We were so "those people."
However, we were only coming for Alison's talk and to film it for Paul who happened to be out of the country. Plus, I hadn't met all the women from her Writer's Guild.
ANYWAY, Alison came over to me right before getting up in front of a ton of people to speak and said, "I'm nervous will you pray for me?"
"Of course. You're great don't worry. This is like nothing for you."
I said a silent prayer and then she asked Ren next to me if she would pray too. Ren smiled and said yes and then feverishly finished a drawing in front of her. As Alison was walking away to get closer to the stage Ren ripped the picture off the pad, and handed it to Alison like a runner passing off the winning baton. Then she sat down next to me with an exhale and said looking at me with her gigantic, beautiful, eyes, "I made it as beautiful as I could."
She was completely serious and the tone in her voice was kind of like, "I hope it works." I thought it was so sweet and I thought about it as she sat next to me with her little headphones and watched part of a movie on our portable dvd player. I realized that I think Ren giving Alison that picture was her prayer.
If it was, it worked.
She was fantastic.