My daughter Lanie sometimes comes with me when I visit church members. She's picked up my habit of praying at the end of these visits. If I ask her what we need to do before we leave she says, "Pray! Pray!" and folds her hands. Lanie also seems to be gathering that we often pray together when we sit down to eat.
So last week I decided that now might be a good time to start praying with her before bed. After we do our nightly reading I ask Lanie what she'd like to pray for. It's adorable. She pauses and thinks really hard and then gleefully responds with the name of somebody she knows. (One night she said, "Baby!" so we thanked God for her baby doll.) I wish I could see inside of her mind when she's thinking to see if she has some reason for naming the people she names or if it's just a random drawing from the names she can say. Lanie is always excited to start praying, though her attention span is pretty short. But that's okay. My prayer attention span isn't always very long, and I've had quite a bit more practice. I don't know that Lanie gets a lot out of prayers yet, but I figure she's forming some understanding. And habits can go a long way in helping us with our spiritual practices. I remember my parents doing nightly devotions with me when I was a couple years older than Lanie is now. Hopefully Tess and I can make that same kind of influence on Lanie. And I could always use more prayer practice myself.
Grace and peace,
BMH
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