a child's prayer

Here I go again with lessons I'm learning from my not-quite 3 year old son, Judah...

We pray together often at bed time.  We miss a night here and there because the stress of bedtime can sometimes overwhelm us both.  But last night, after a full evening of playing at the park and a bath to wash off the aftermath of playing at the park, he and I prayed together as he went to bed.  I asked him if he wanted to pray.  Usually he'll say, 'you do it.'  Sometimes he'll repeat after me; most often he'll just listen and say 'Amen' at the end.  Last night he wanted to pray.

And he said, simply, 'Dear God... thank you for everything.  Amen.'

I couldn't have said it better myself.  Sure, long and loving, desperate and devoted conversations with Almighty God have their place and should be part of our devotional lives.  But the simple and exhausted prayer of a little boy was profound in ways for which my grown-up words can only hope.

We followed his simple prayer with the sign of the cross, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  He has worshiped with us in nondenominational, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, and other churches - so even in his 3 years, he's seen some variety.  He's starting to get it, though.  Sometimes it looks like the sign of the cross, and sometimes it looks like he's swatting away a mosquito.  He often also asks 'Which one's the Holy Spirit?' pointing to his two shoulders. 

(The Catechism of the Catholic Church says that 'the sign of the Cross... marks with the imprint of Christ the one who is going to belong to him and signifies the grace of the redemption Christ won for us by his cross.'  And Martin Luther, in his Small Catechism, says 'In the morning, when you rise... [and] in the evening, when you go to bed, you shall make the sign of the holy cross, and you shall say: In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Then, kneeling or standing, you shall say the Apostles’ Creed and the Lord’s Prayer.)

Dear God... thank you for Judah.

Amen.

Comments

[Adam Parker]

Nice post. Kids are great. I've got 2 kids and when I pray with my oldest he always wants to pray first. The more we pray together and read the Bible together, the more He is understanding about God. It is amazing how quick kids learn things even at young ages.