#270 Reflections on Praying with a Two-year-old

I recently started praying with my younger daughter, Mia, as part of her bedtime routine. She's getting better at communicating, so I can now ask her what she wants to pray for and understand what she's saying. I also think she's experienced prayer in enough other settings by this point to have at least somewhat of an idea of what we're doing. Anyway, when it's time for Mia to give me prayer requests, the first thing out of her mouth is always the same: "Me!" It's pretty cute, and I'm happy to pray for her.

But I think Mia's response is a pretty good indicator of the way we think. I know when I pray individually, my own needs and wants are often the first thing on my mind. I try to teach my kids to think of others when we pray together, and I'm normally pretty good about thinking of others when I have to pray publicly, but that selfishness is hard to overcome. It stretches us to pray for other people, to think of their concerns and their desires. I think praying for others is part of loving our neighbor as we love ourselves.

However, even that shouldn't be the end of our praying. When we pray, we bring ourselves before God. I know I could grow in thinking about my prayers being about God. Praying is an opportunity to thank God for what He has done, to praise Him for who He is, to sit quietly and enjoy His presence and listen for His voice. Thinking about God in our prayers helps keep our prayers from becoming like a grocery list or a letter to Santa Claus. God loves to care for our physical needs and give us good gifts, but God does so much more than that. Trusting God to provide for us is good, but loving God rightly goes beyond that. We can and should pray for our personal concerns, but we can and should do more when we pray. Mia's helped me remember that, so hopefully I'll do a good job of teaching her to pray.

Grace and peace,

BMH