Dear God....

Well, before we get to the "blog" of today, I'm announcing a start-over with my blogging habit. (And, how long have I been doing this? A month???). I have let it slip away already, and it's time to get back in the swing of things. Really, my intention has still been to blog all of these funny stories that happen daily around here, but then, one thing after another, and I'm all of a sudden at the end of another day and an exhausted mommy falls into bed without ever typing a word!

So, here's my first entry of my new and improved blogging. Hopefully I will have more entries than once a week, so that you are not bored to tears by the "week's synopsis" used as a catch-up blog from the days that have passed.

(What's funny is that even on the days I don't blog, I find the time to read everyone else's! It's just too addicting! So, you may not know much about my life, but I know ALL about yours!)

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Dear God...

Something that has been a topic of conversation in our home the last few weeks has been our family's prayer life. First, Carlie has started praying, which has got to be the most precious thing I've ever seen. She bows her head, covers her eyes with her hands, and listens....until about halfway through the prayer, when she starts dying laughing. Which of course, makes all of us want to laugh too. So, that is a fun addition to our prayer life.

The second change has been Kendyll's prayers. We had noticed that her prayers were exactly the same every time without much thought or emotion in them. She said what we said and we all prayed pretty simple prayers with her. So, we decided (inspired by a speaker at church) to really start praying "bigger" prayers with Kendyll so that she saw God as capable of handling more than just a "thank you for our mommy, daddy, and Jesus" kind of prayer. And, the results have been both humbling and amazing....

First try....Mark prays a beautiful prayer asking God to help other specific people, bless specific babies who are growing in tummies of our sisters and friends, and thanking Him for the many blessings in our lives (by name). Result....Kendyll praying almost the exact same prayer that evening at dinner. Lesson....Our children are learning from EVERY word that leaves our mouth and are forming their image of God every day by what we teach them. A huge parenting lesson that day.

A few days later....Kendyll is still praying her typical prayer but it is changing slightly. It includes more "specific" requests and she thanks God for all of her "bahlessings" and names a few. She also started praying for more people than she used to.

I also started praying nightly for her future and her character, which Kendyll doesn't totally understand yet but can pick up on pretty easily. This has also been neat to watch. Because she has now started praying for me in a similar way! It brings tears to my eyes to listen to what she thinks I need most and to hear her thanking God for specific character traits about me and her daddy. WOW!! Our kids are capable of so much more than we give them credit for. Then there are the simple things that make me cry. The other night she said "And, God, thank you for how much my mommy loves me and for how many hugs she gives me." So simple, but meant to so much to a mommy who had a very busy week and was worried about exactly that. She must have known what my mommy heart needed to hear.

And, then, here is the funniest story of this whole experience. The other day, Kendyll had been having a pretty rough afternoon...whining, not sharing, screaming, the works. So, in Mark's prayer at our meal, he asked God to help Kendyll "make better choices, be happier with her sister, to remember what the Bible says about respect" and a few other things. After he finished, we kind of laughed about how really that was a lecture to Kendyll in prayer form, and decided that maybe we shouldn't do that in the future. And, instead focus on the positive in prayers and hope that would make a difference.

But, the impact had already been made. The very next time we prayed together (our dinner that night), this was the conclusion of Kendyll's prayer: "And, God, please help my daddy to make better choices. Help him to play with me more, and to always love me and trust me. Help him to be happy with me too." I couldn't even tell you what else she said because I was stuck on that sentence.

It was one of those moments where you were just so awestruck that you just couldn't say anything at all. She had just said a "lecture prayer" to Mark!! I just started laughing and couldn't hold it in and Mark just started crying and couldn't hold that in either. It hit us in that moment how fallible we really are as parents and how much they pick up on what we do. Although Mark felt horrible (and begged me not to blog this!), I think it was such a good lesson for us on the importance of teaching spiritual habits to our children carefully. We also learned that we need to be praying more about just how to do that!

I pray that the Lord continues to equip all of us mommies and daddies with the spiritual knowledge and words to show His spirit to these tiny minds and hearts so that they will grow up to know who God really is.... and to understand that He is ready to listen to whatever their hearts want to tell Him through their sweet prayers!