Speaker 1: This is Leigh Habib and this is our American Stories,
Speaker 1: and we tell stories about everything here on this show.
Speaker 1: And our favorite stories are our listeners stories. They're yours stories.
Speaker 1: Our next story comes to us from Paul in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Speaker 1: Paul moved our listeners with his story Wilburt and the
Speaker 1: Empty Nester and a baby Boomer's battle with insanity and fitness.
Speaker 1: We asked him if he had any more. Here he
Speaker 1: is with a story simply titled Moose Prayer. Have you
Speaker 1: ever seen a moose? I have. They're big, strong, powerful,
Speaker 1: and athletic. Have you ever wanted to be a moose?
Speaker 1: I did. I lived with a moose all throughout my childhood,
Speaker 1: growing up in Bloomington, Minnesota, the middle child of a
Speaker 1: cluster of eight of our Catholic kids. I have three
Speaker 1: older brothers, one older sister, two younger brothers, and one
Speaker 1: younger sister. I grew up idolizing my older siblings. What
Speaker 1: I wouldn't have given to be as cool as them?
Speaker 1: Such was the thought of this impressionable little brother. It
Speaker 1: was Tom, the firstborn, five years my senior, that I
Speaker 1: most wanted to emulate. His nickname Moose, A three sports
Speaker 1: star at Kennedy High School, larger than life in my
Speaker 1: ten year old eyes to a fifth grader, A fifteen
Speaker 1: year old moose may as well have been Paul Bunyan.
Speaker 1: He could do it all. What does this have to
Speaker 1: do with a moose prayer? Let me start by asking,
Speaker 1: have you ever wondered whether God is listening to your prayers?
Speaker 1: I have wondered the same. As a high school sophomore,
Speaker 1: I remember praying that the cute, energetic cheerleader would fall
Speaker 1: head over heels for me. I was a shy, bashful,
Speaker 1: awkward teenager. It didn't happen. God didn't answer my prayer,
Speaker 1: or did he. It turned out the cheerleader and I
Speaker 1: had very little in common. I also remember another selfish prayer,
Speaker 1: a petition I made before my varsity hockey games. Please
Speaker 1: God help us to win and help me to score
Speaker 1: a goal. A victory and a goal did not always happen.
Speaker 1: God didn't grant that prayer request either, or did he?
Speaker 1: Perhaps I scored more goals than I deserved? Or what
Speaker 1: about my prayer asking that God would give me over
Speaker 1: my fear of public speaking. He certainly didn't answer that
Speaker 1: one the way I had hoped. After fifty eight years,
Speaker 1: I still shivered at the thought and stutter when attempting
Speaker 1: to speak in public settings. Or was it answered? Indeed,
Speaker 1: this leads me to the prayer that God answered for
Speaker 1: me without a doubt, my Moose prayer. Let's go back
Speaker 1: to the ten year old fifth grader and his fifteen
Speaker 1: year old oldest brother. One evening, Moose and I were
Speaker 1: in our basement in the middle of an all star
Speaker 1: wrestling match, and it happened. Bam. I could not believe
Speaker 1: my eyes. Moose, while performing a wrestling move, banged his
Speaker 1: head on the duck worked above us. While he was
Speaker 1: busy shaking out the cobwebs. I was standing there in awe.
Speaker 1: How could he hit his head on something that high?
Speaker 1: My brother Moose was indeed larger than Paul Bunyan. He
Speaker 1: was a giant after all, confirmed in my mind right
Speaker 1: then and there. Thus my Moose prayer was born. From
Speaker 1: that night forward, I ended my bedtime prayers with Please
Speaker 1: Lord helped me to grow to be as big as Moose.
Speaker 1: Prayer after prayer, night after night, year after year, I
Speaker 1: was relentless. I wanted more than anything to be as
Speaker 1: big as my big brother. I kept up this prayer
Speaker 1: for a good five or six years, never letting up.
Speaker 1: While we don't have a lot of tall jeans in
Speaker 1: our family, my dad pushing six feet, my mama petit
Speaker 1: five feet five inches, my non moose brothers at five eleven,
Speaker 1: although most of them are still claiming to be six
Speaker 1: feet but moose topped out at six feet two inches, big, strong, powerful,
Speaker 1: and athletic. Indeed, as for me, somehow I grew to
Speaker 1: be six feet six inches. How did that happen? I
Speaker 1: don't know for sure. Was it the peanut butter, my
Speaker 1: favorite food? I doubt it coincidence? Maybe in answer to
Speaker 1: my moose prayer? I think quite possibly yes, For God
Speaker 1: tells us ask and you will receive, Seek and you
Speaker 1: will find, knock and it will be open unto you.
Speaker 1: I certainly ask to be tall with passion, over and
Speaker 1: over again. For me, I believe God chose to answer
Speaker 1: my prayer, and then some his way of telling me,
Speaker 1: do not doubt have faith. I hear you and will
Speaker 1: answer your prayers. This knowledge he has given me, this
Speaker 1: faith has certainly well over the years. From days when
Speaker 1: my faith is tested and doubt creeps into my mind
Speaker 1: as to whether God cares and is listening. I need
Speaker 1: to look no further than my six ft six in
Speaker 1: frame as a reminder that, yes, God does listen, and
Speaker 1: he does care, and he does want me to talk
Speaker 1: to him. My prayers have changed since I was a teenager.
Speaker 1: Instead of a laundry list of who things to ask
Speaker 1: God for, I try to spend more time talking with
Speaker 1: God than listening to him. Quiet time together, one on
Speaker 1: one conversing. As a father myself, I learned how precious
Speaker 1: time is with your sons and daughters. What father would
Speaker 1: not want to have a conversation with his child. After
Speaker 1: my kids moved out of our house and I became
Speaker 1: an empty nester, the days I would get a phone
Speaker 1: call from one of them became my best days. It
Speaker 1: made no difference to me the reason they called. Sometimes
Speaker 1: it was just to say hi and to tell me
Speaker 1: they loved me. Sometimes it was to discuss an issue
Speaker 1: they were having, or to ask for some fatherly advice.
Speaker 1: Sometimes they even called him questions something I was doing.
Speaker 1: I cherished each and every one of these conversations. The
Speaker 1: precious time together is priceless. Fathers I have learned, of course,
Speaker 1: want what is best for their children and we do
Speaker 1: want them to ask, and I can surely imagine how
Speaker 1: the same goes with our heavenly Father. I also learned
Speaker 1: much of this from my own father. He asked me
Speaker 1: once during one of our weekly Sunday night sessions to
Speaker 1: define prayer. I struggled with an answer. I thought I
Speaker 1: knew what it was, but I couldn't articulate it. He
Speaker 1: sent me to go look it up. I don't remember
Speaker 1: where I found the answer he was looking for, but
Speaker 1: when I came back and I said, prayer is talking
Speaker 1: to God with love, he said, that's correct. I'll never
Speaker 1: forget it. But more than a definition, I learned from
Speaker 1: my dad how to pray, from the formal prayers and
Speaker 1: the Rosary, who also learned to be unselfish in prayers,
Speaker 1: praying for others rather than myself, just as he did.
Speaker 1: Our family has been blessed over and over thanks in
Speaker 1: a large part, I am sure to his unending prayers.
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure my dad's moose prayer had nothing to
Speaker 1: do with himself, but more to do with talking to
Speaker 1: God with love about helping others. So this all begs
Speaker 1: the question, who is your moose? Who do you want
Speaker 1: to emulate? What is your moose prayer? Talk to God
Speaker 1: about it with love. I'm convinced he's looking forward very
Speaker 1: much to talking with you, and he will listen to you,
Speaker 1: and he will answer your prayers. And a great job
Speaker 1: is always by Greg and a special thanks to Paul
Speaker 1: in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Here on our American Stories Folks, if
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