It started like any regular Tuesday. We were walking back from the grocery store\u2014me lugging bags, my eight-year-old son, Ben, skipping beside me, chatting about nothing and everything.<\/p>\n
About halfway home, we passed a police officer standing by his cruiser, talking to someone. Ben tugged on my sleeve and whispered, \u201cMama, can I ask him something?\u201d I figured he wanted to see the patrol car or maybe ask about his badge, so I shrugged and said sure.<\/p>\n
But instead of the usual kid questions, Ben walked right up and, in his small but steady voice, said, \u201cExcuse me, sir\u2026 can I pray for you?\u201d<\/p>\n
The officer looked taken aback. I froze, half-embarrassed, half-curious. Without missing a beat, the officer glanced at me for a second\u2014like asking if it was okay\u2014then nodded. Next thing I knew, this grown man got down on one knee right there on the sidewalk.<\/p>\n
I stood there, bags dangling, trying to process it.<\/p>\n
Ben placed his hand gently on the officer\u2019s shoulder, closed his eyes, and said, \u201cI just wanna pray that he stays safe\u2026 and doesn\u2019t have to hurt anybody today. And that when he goes home, he still remembers he\u2019s a good person.\u201d<\/p>\n
That was the moment my throat closed up. Because we\u2019ve never talked about police in any deep way\u2014not really. But Ben\u2019s been quiet ever since he saw that news story last month. The one I switched off too fast, thinking he wasn\u2019t paying attention.<\/p>\n
The officer\u2019s eyes were shiny when he stood back up. He thanked Ben like it meant the world.<\/p>\n
And walking home, Ben asked me \u201cMom\u2026 do people ever pray for the bad guys, too?\u201d<\/p>\n
The question hit harder than any breaking-news headline. I adjusted the grocery bags so they wouldn\u2019t slip and tried to catch my breath. \u201cWhy do you ask, buddy?\u201d<\/p>\n
Ben kicked a pebble, eyes on his sneakers. \u201cThe man on TV\u2014they said he hurt somebody. The other man was crying. I wondered if anyone prayed for him before that happened.\u201d<\/p>\n
I knelt to his height right there on Maple Street, traffic humming past. \u201cI think people forget sometimes,\u201d I said honestly. \u201cThey forget everyone needs someone rooting for them to do the right thing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It started like any regular Tuesday. We were walking back from the grocery store\u2014me lugging bags, my eight-year-old son, Ben, skipping beside me, chatting about nothing and… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedailyglow.fun\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedailyglow.fun\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedailyglow.fun\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedailyglow.fun\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedailyglow.fun\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4898"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thedailyglow.fun\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4898\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4900,"href":"https:\/\/thedailyglow.fun\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4898\/revisions\/4900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedailyglow.fun\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedailyglow.fun\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedailyglow.fun\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}