Lord, Teach Us to Pray
This is a prayer I pray a lot, repeating what the disciples asked Jesus. And now that I am not only responsible for one, I want just as much — if not more — that my children would develop deep hearts for God and for prayer.
While it’s tempting to wait until Eden is praying for God to be glorified on the earth; or Caleb, that his homeland would be healed of poverty … well, here’s a window into our little prayer time, such as it is *now*:
With a growing vocabulary, Eden, in particular, finds our prayer time as her own occasion to soliloquize using her growing word bank (not quite the concept we’re shooting for here.)… as if to say “Jesus, look at what I’m learning!”
Last night, this was her prayer:
“Thank you so much Jesus.
Ducky flew away, Jesus.
Ducky poopy.
Jesus shinte ["pee pee"] and caca ["poo"] in the potty.
Amen.”
It seems here that she is really grasping that Jesus was not only fully God, but fully man …right?
Not exactly what I’d call storming the gates of heaven with our prayers, but certainly helping us keep it light here at Nana’s house, while we’re missing my dad.
Sara,
I am so sorry about your Dad. Your post reminded me of something that happened last night a few minutes before bedtime. Our three yr. old has just recently become fully potty trained. I knew he had gone into the potty to work on a project and stopped in the doorway to ask if he was all done so I could help him get cleaned up. He said, “Mommy…come in, sit down (indicating edge of bathtub)…now tell me God.” And for about five or ten minutes we sat and looked each other in the eye and talked about God while he took care of business.
I think this is exactly the kind of prayer that must please the Lord.
Sara, I just wanted you to know that Pippin and I think of and pray for you often. your family and your story are very precious to me, and i think it’s brave and amazing that you would chose to share such intimate pieces of your life with us in this way. my heart aches for you, and i am inspired to pursue the author and perfector of our faith even more deeply. i know that God is with you.