Teaching Our Children to Pray

Maryn: "Dough God, dinku mommy, daddy, Tye better, mommy bay huwts, Kay, Cabe, Dosiah better. Ay-min."

Translation: "Dear God, thank you for mommy and daddy. Please help Tye to get better and heal Mommy's belly that still hurts. Thank you for Kelly and Caleb and please help Josiah to get better, too. Amen."

Maryn's little prayer today before bed time was so cute and thoughtful I almost cried afterward. I pray God cultivates this compassion in her. And it was so sweet of her to think of my "belly" because it has been hurting, and I haven't told her about it. I was actually just telling a friend about it the other day and maybe she heard me mention it to John. But she remembered and she knew she could take it to God. Isn't that amazing? Isn't it wonderful what little kids understand, sometimes more than we do?

"At that time Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children..."
-Matthew 11:25

"[Jesus] said, 'Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." -Matthew 18:3

Maryn receives some great resources from our church and she has excellent teachers who sit with them, pray with them and teach them God's Word. I am so grateful to be at a church where the kids start learning from God's Word as soon as they are born! And they help parents out by sending home some great stuff. In Maryn's newsletter, there's always a section with tips on helping our kids memorize Scripture and also tips on teaching them how to pray.

Today we made a prayer poster for some people we know who are sick. Including Tye, our pastor Dr. Moore, Codey (a boy from Kendra's town who has cancer) and our family (we all have a cold). We stuck Band-Aids to a paper Maryn decorated and wrote each name on a Band-Aid. Now if you know kids, you know Band-Aids are a big deal! Kids just GET that a bandage means, ouch! And a bandage makes everything feel a little better, too. So Maryn is learning to keep these people in her thoughts and also her prayers, obviously. It's so sweet.

I have a picture of our prayer poster and also of Maryn's fun imaginative play that I will post later. I left the camera in Maryn's room...and she is taking a nap...so photos later! I may not take a picture of Josiah today because he has been in the Moby all day. Poor little man has a cold, and I am just making him as comfortable as possible and keeping him upright so that he can get some good sleep. But I assure you, he is as cute as ever.