What can prayer do for you? For this family, it means a life well lived

Opinion admin September 3, 2026 0 Comments

What can prayer do for you? For this family, it means a life well lived | Opinion

Sometimes I think about all the babies that have been aborted in this country, (Guttmacher Institute clinicians estimated more than a million in 2025), and wonder what these babies would have become if they had been allowed to live.

I think about the potential doctors and scientists who could have found the cure for some dreaded disease. And the many brilliant artists and scientists, who never saw the light of day, but could have lighted our world with the beauty of their musical talents or the with the stroke of their brush on a blank canvas.

I think about the many who could have become missionaries or ministers, who could have preached the Word of God, teaching people to love one another the way the Lord wants us to do, and somehow making the world a better place.

I am not judging anyone. Just thinking.

These were my musings recently after I had a conversation with one of my goddaughters, Cecily Robinson Duffie, an attorney and a devout Christian and prayer partner. We often talk about the power of prayer and how important a consistent prayer life is to believers. As we spoke, she recalled the story of Wesley Wray, whose life was spared while he was still a fetus. We believe Wesley is alive and well today because of prayer.

Wesley’s story was so touching that I got his mother’s phone number from Cecily and called her.

Shontonna Wray was just home from her teaching job at Miami Central High, where she teaches biology when I reached her. She laughed softly when I told her I learned of her story from my goddaughter Cecily, a friend of hers.

“I can’t believe she remembers my story,” she said. I told her Cecily remembered her story because it is a testament to the power and effectiveness of prayer.

Wray told me she was seven months pregnant when an ultrasound showed there was something seriously wrong with her baby. Already a blended family with three daughters, she and her then husband, Walter, were hoping for a boy. She remembers that it seemed like all the air was sucked from the room at the time. She was so looking forward to motherhood. She tried to steady herself as the doctor calmly told her what the ultrasound showed.

“The doctor told me that a part of my baby’s brain was missing, the corpus callosum – a thick c-shaped band of nerve fibers located near the center of the brain that connects the left and right cerebral hemisphere, acting as the primary communication pathway between,” Wray said.

“Then he explained that because I was seven months along, Florida law would not allow me to have the abortion here. He then gave me a list of states that I could travel to where late-term abortions were legal. While he is giving me this information, I am just crying my butt off. He gave me another appointment in two weeks to let him know of my decision.”

Wray said she left the doctor’s office in shock. What could have gone wrong? She had been so careful, going to all her pre-natal appointments, eating healthy, getting enough rest. She didn’t understand this cruel turn of events.

Then, through her tears, she remembered that she had a praying grandma.

“I called my grandmother, Albertha Thompson, and told her the problem. I remember Grandma telling me, ‘We can pray for you, Baby, but you must provide the faith and pray, too…’ Here I was seven months pregnant, but I was on my belly praying for two weeks, crying out to the Lord to heal my baby,” Wray said. “When the two weeks were over, I went to my appointment. I wasn’t distraught. I was hopeful. I believed the prayers. When the doctor came into the examining room, he said, ‘What we thought was not there, was actually there!’ A weight was lifted off me. The prayers had worked. Right then, I remembered what my grandma said when I went to her for prayers. She told me I had to have faith and pray, too.”

Two months later, on July 22, 2004, Wray gave birth to a healthy baby boy.

“Prayers for me and our baby was coming from everywhere,” Wray said. “I just believed God would hear our prayers, and He did,” she said.

As Wesley grew, it became apparent that he was musically talented. Wray said when he was 4, and was in kindergarten, one day she found his teacher crying when she went to pick him up.

“Right away I thought something bad had happened to my child. Then the teacher said to me, ‘Did you know Wesley can sing like an angel?’ His singing had moved her to tears. At his kindergarten graduation, Wesley led the song Hero. We were so proud of him.”

Wesley went on to take acting classes at the African American Heritage Cultural Arts Center, now named for Marshall Davis, the center’s longtime director, and later at Norland Middle School where Tanisha Cidel was his teacher. He was the understudy for the lead character in the 2017 Academy award-winning movie “Moonlight.” Wesley graduated from American Heritage High School in Plantation in 2022 and went on to the University of Michigan. Wesley was in his junior year at the university and was studying that summer at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in the UK when he was invited to New York to audition for a part in a Broadway show.

I was able to reach Wesley, now 22, by phone just before he left for the theater where he is appearing in the Broadway musical “Buena Vista Social Club,” and, as he says “living in gratitude to the Most High” for saving his life. “Before I got on this earth, I faced a major challenge. I believe that helped to make me into the person I am today,” he said.

Wesley’s mother told him the story of what happened when she was seven months pregnant with him.

“I wanted him to know how special he was, to God and to us,” she said.

“To know the story of my beginning and to know I was yet able to grow up and make something out of my life fills me with gratitude,” Wesley said. “I am so thankful for the talents that I love to share.”

My friends, that’s what prayer can do.