My wife keeps a set of notecards above the sink in our kitchen. Each one contains a particular characteristic that she prays the Lord would build into our kids. Each morning, she flips to another card and then recycles through them. It makes me smile to think that several decades from now those same cards might be on our windowsill somewhere, worn and yellow with age, and yet still being flipped.

But my favorite thing she prays for our children is something that’s not necessarily written on one of these cards. It’s also something that our kids, particularly the 7-year-old, is not excited to know that Mommy prays for him. Jana diligently beseeches the Lord that our kids will get caught.

She prays that no sin will be able to be hidden and that there will be no secrets with our kids. And she trusts the Lord that He’s going to answer her prayer and expose them. And you know what?

It’s working.

There was that time Joshua tried to sneak a toy out of the house to school that he’d been told not to take.

Why did Mommy have to open my backpack that day?

Then there was the time when Andi was spitting out her vegetables in her napkin and then throwing it away.

Why did Mommy have to look straight into the trash that night?

This is a good thing to pray because, by God’s grace, it is building a few things into our kids. They are coming to understand how long and wide is the vision of the Lord. That there really is nothing hidden before Him to whom we must give an account. And they’re learning that there’s no such thing as a consequence-less act. Their choices matter, even when they don’t seem like it.

Kind of makes you think that getting caught is actually a good thing.

But I hope they are learning that it’s always better to live in light rather than darkness. So keep praying, Jana. By God’s grace, our kids will continue to get busted.