Sweet Prayers

Ella has been praying for quite some time now. And it's always the same:

"Dear God, tank-you dis food. Tank-you go nigh-nigh."

Yes. It's that same prayer no matter what time of day or what circumstance.

Can you tell we pray with her at every meal and every bed time?

But last night during family devotion time we began to pray and she butted right in and this is what she said,"Tank-you dear God dis food. Tank-you dear God go nigh-nigh. Tank-you dear God go ow-sigh. Tank-you dear God go Lawen's house."

And at bedtime, kneeling with her head as always laid on her precious "Polor bear" (really her panda pillow pet) She said, "Tank-you dear God go night-nigh. Tank-you dear God go ow-sigh. Tank-you dear God read books mommy, daddy. Tank-you dear God go up high. Amen."

That day we had played outside, picked up her friend Lauren and taken her to story time with us, read many stories, and played a rhyme where I toss her up high in the air.

While we've modeled thanking God for things and had her repeat after us many a time before, she's not caught on until now. This was the first time she prayed like that unsolicited by us. The first time that she thought up her very own things and thanked God for them. It was a peek inside that intelligent little mind of hersand that oh, so sweet heart.

We pray daily that God will give us the wisdom to know how to impart our knowledge of Him, to know how to raise her to know him and love him, to have a relationship with Him. We pray that we will never be the kind of parents that go to church but then don't bring God into our moment by moment lives. We pray that she will see God in our daily lives, our actions...not just our words. But it all seems like such a big task and weighty responsibility. This was a small - but not small - a huge reminder that it is not our task alone to complete. It is God, through our obedience to Him and love for Him, that will show Himself to her throughout her life. It was such a ressuring confirmation that He is faithful.