3-Foot-High Mirrors: On Child-like Prayer
I put my head down and took a deep breath. My almost 5-year-old son had insisted on praying at dinner again, and I waited somewhat patiently as he thanked God for his food, his family, his table, his chair, his cup, his milk, his water, his socks, his pants, his peas, his…
As adults, my husband and I wish our son would adhere to the simple “God is good, God is great, thank you for this food and please bless our family, Amen” prayer that we tried to teach our children to pray at mealtimes. We take deep breaths and wait for our son to express his detailed gratitude while knowing that we would once again be eating food whose temperature has dropped significantly. Parents joke about not eating a hot meal because they get up and down to get their kids all of the things – in our house, parents don’t eat hot meals because we’re waiting for our son to finish thanking God for everything in the meal.
This is what we get for praying for patience.
Not wanting to discourage him, we always start by telling our son “Good job, Buddy” when he finally does close out everything in the name of Jesus and state his “Amen”. We then remind him that we should keep our mealtime prayers a bit shorter so our food doesn’t get cold and we can enjoy our meal together as a family.
Then I remember the words of Jesus: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of Heaven.” (Matthew 18:3)
Isn’t it funny how the innocence of children can teach us so much about the world?
On more than one occasion I have looked at any of my negative traits through one of mirrors in my house that stands about 3-feet high and looks at me with wide child-eyes and silly smiles. And on more than one occasion I have seen God using my children to teach me a lesson about approaching Him, about how He wants us to love each other and to love Jesus.
“Mom, Jesus made me and then He put me in your belly and then God made me into a kid who is growing all the time!”
This is what my daughter declared one morning at breakfast with the biggest smile on her face.
Kids see the awesomeness of God in so many things, and the way that my son sees it is through the gratitude he has for all of the things. And so since prayer is a way that we have to give God thanks for the things that we have and because we have explained to our kids that praying is the way that we can talk to God about anything we want… the obvious answer, in my son’s eyes, is to make sure we thank God for EVERYTHING. And he does so with all of his heart whenever it’s time to open up to God.
I don’t think that the lesson that God is teaching me through my son is to make sure that I list every individual item I am thankful for, but rather to make sure that I am being patient and taking time to do so at all. No matter what kind of timeline I am on – whether it’s getting kids out the door, making it to an appointment on time, or eating my food before gets cold – it is important that thanking God is a priority in my prayers. He provides so much, so much that we have to be thankful for and there is NOTHING more important than our relationship with Him.
Tonight at dinner when my son insists on praying again, I will find the beauty in his gratitude and I will find a way to help him shape his prayers in loving, appropriate ways. I will encourage him to continue to pursue God as he grows, and will continue to pray that God reach the hearts of my kids and pull them towards Him.
“I have no greater joy than to learn that my children are walking in the truth.” (3 John 1:4)