Prayers of a child
sometime last week elizabeth came to me and said that she didnt know how to pray.....i asked her why because she has been saying her prayers for a long time now.....she explained to me that she didnt want to pray the little kids prayer.....you see we have taught her the basic kids prayer of now i lay me down to sleep.....she has this book of childrens prayers, and we have read it several times....so she has now began to associate her prayers to the childrens prayers in that book....which there was nothing wrong with that, but she feels that it is for a baby....and plans on teaching it to keegan when she can really talk.....
so we began talking about why we pray and how we should pray.....we worked on a new big girl prayer for her to start saying.....that lasted till tonight.....after dinner and playing and brushing teeth and all that normal nightly bedtime jazz, i reminded her to do her prayers before she went to bed......she said ok and left......a while later she came back out and said that she wasnt praying right and wanted my help.....so i went in the room and sat with her and asked her what she meant......she told me that she wanted God to really hear her prayers and wanted to pray like mommy and daddy do.......
not knowing what exactly she meant i asked her what she meant......she told me and my heart filled with this pride and joy that i cannot explain......she is only five and already understands the true power of prayer.....she wanted to kneel and pray rather than sitting in her bed.....so we began to talk about what it is that she should say......i told her that the first thing that she should do when praying to God is to humble herself by kneeling and then begin by praising God for all that he has done for her....then she could then ask a special blessing over anything or anyone that she wanted to......and then she could ask God to help her to reach her personal goals for the week........and that then she should always tell God how much we love him and his son Jesus Christ our personal Lord and savior......so this was her prayer.....
Dear God,
my name is elizabeth kay martin.......you have made me special because i have a mommy, a daddy, a big sister, a little brother and a baby sister......you have also given me a dad......God will you please make my daddy and all his friends safe in iraq cause mommy says that they have the most important job in the world and their job is not over yet.......God will you please make my graw stronger and better so that i can go and see her again soon......will please make my sister not be so mean to me when we play.....can you make my mommy be strong for my daddy and be the boss when he is gone......and God can you tell my dad that i love him too.....because i love all of them and want them all to be safe.....God thank you for making us all healthy and happy and safe.......God can you help me to be a good girl this week, my goals are to be good in school, help mommy with the dishes and listen to what she says....to be nice to keegan and ms. janell......i love you God and Jesus, and tell Jesus thank you for breaking the bread small to feed like 25 people(her lesson at church today was about Jesus feeding 5000)......AMEN
i was sooooo proud of her for the simple prayer that she said and realized more today than any other that our children really do learn from our example......i guess i didnt know that she paid that much attention to me or stephen when we prayed.......but now i know......
baby, i hope that when you read this that you will see what a true impact you have had on this family......and just how much you are loved and missed.......we love you and miss you very much, and as you can see we are all praying for you and everyone else over there......i missed talking to you today and hope that you will get the chance to call tomorrow......i love you and miss you more than words can say.....