16 Year Journey Praying for My Atheist Father

What are you praying for? Have you prayed hundreds or thousands of times for something? I travelled a 16 year journey praying for my father to believe in God. And I prayed over 5,000 times.

You see, when my twin sister and I were little, our father disappeared from our life. My mom and stepfather took us to church, but we didn’t understand much about God or prayer.

Along about fourth grade, my dad reappeared and wanted to be a part of my life again. I’ll never forget what he told me at nine-years-old, “People think there’s a God, but there’s not.”

Not understanding it at the time, I knew later my dad was an atheist.

This confused my young heart, wondering, Is God real and does He love me?

16 Year Journey: Praying When Faith Wanes

Then something wonderful happened. At sixteen, both me and my sister prayed to receive Jesus Christ as Savior at a church revival. Sixteen turned out to be sweet after all.

That night as I crawled into bed, I decided to pray daily for my father to believe in God and accept Christ. Even though I was a young Christian, I missed very few days praying for my dad.

Soon I went off to college and continued to pray and asked others to pray.

But, I admit my faith waned many times. My dad seemed hard-hearted and unreachable. So when I was a young woman a mentor encouraged me to insert my father’s name into Scripture about salvation and pray it out loud.

John 3:16, For God so loved Gene, that he gave his only Son, that if Gene believes in him, he will not perish but have eternal life.

Romans 10:13, If Gene calls on the name of the Lord, he will be saved.