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<\/p>\nSince our daughter was born, my husband and I have (attempted) a nightly prayer with our kids.<\/p>\n
When she was a baby, we asked the angels to surround us, and prayed an Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be while we held her (and while she slept\u2026or thought about milk).\u00a0 Now at three and a half, we still ask the angels to surround us, but, instead of a rote prayer, we take turns answering the question: \u201cWould you like to say something to God today?\u201d <\/p>\n
Usually, our daughter elects to say something she\u2019s grateful for\u2026last night she was grateful for \u201crocking in her rocking chair.\u201d\u00a0 She has recently been grateful for her puppy dog \u201cstuffie\u201d (which means \u201cstuffed animal,\u201d for anyone who hasn\u2019t watched 10,000 hours of Daniel Tiger), and \u201chugs from Daddy.\u201d\u00a0 Lucky dad.<\/p>\n
But not only do we have this creative little 3 \u00bd year old.\u00a0 We have our 19th<\/sup>-month old son.\u00a0 This little guy takes a different approach\u2014he\u2019s been more tactile in his prayer than his sister.\u00a0 (And if anybody ever tries to tell you that boys and girls are the same, they\u2019re either lying or they\u2019ve never taken care of kids.)\u00a0 For the Little Guy, he likes to \u201clight\u201d our electric candle, which involves batting it with a spit-covered fist.\u00a0 He also likes to \u201cgreet\u201d some of our sacred images, like St. Francis, or the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which also involves batting said image with a spit-covered fist.<\/p>\n But last evening we heard something new.\u00a0 We asked the question, \u201cWould you like to say something to God today?\u201d\u00a0 And his response was thus:\u00a0 \u201cGod.\u00a0 God?\u00a0 God.\u00a0 God-God-God!\u00a0 God!\u201d<\/p>\n My husband and I glanced at each other.\u00a0 I asked Little Guy, \u201cWould you like to say thank you to God for something?\u201d<\/p>\n Little Guy says this:\u00a0 \u201cGod!\u00a0 God!\u00a0 Tahnk-oom (his version of thank you)!\u00a0 Bye Bye!\u201d<\/p>\n Now, don\u2019t worry, I\u2019m not taking this \u201cbye bye\u201d as a note of existential abandonment.\u00a0 When our son says \u201cBye Bye,\u201d he says it to people he loves.\u00a0 To people he trusts.\u00a0 To people he expects to see again.<\/p>\n In short, I think we have a lot to learn from these little mouths who, at least in our son\u2019s case, have not said all that many words.\u00a0 My daughter shows us gratitude\u2014an attitude of praise for the abundance God has given us: a comforting chair, a hug from someone who loves us.\u00a0 Or a cuddly stuffie.<\/p>\n Our son teaches us that just uttering the name of the Living One can be prayer enough.\u00a0 Sometimes we don\u2019t have the words to pray.\u00a0 But we can say God\u2019s name.\u00a0 And God will hear us.\u00a0 We can simply say \u201cthank you\u201d\u2014because God already knows what is in our hearts.\u00a0 And when we say \u201cAmen,\u201d aren\u2019t we saying the same thing as my little son\u2019s \u201cbye bye\u201d?\u00a0 We say Amen to Someone we love.\u00a0 To Someone we trust.\u00a0 To Someone we expect to see again.<\/p>\n So, in our rugged paths of adulthood, filled with confusion, distress, and sadness, we might also be filled with worry about how to pray.\u00a0 And so from the mouths of (spit-fisted) babes I want to listen.\u00a0 Toddlers, teach me to pray.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Our son teaches us that just uttering the name of the Living One can be prayer enough.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":56251,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[3119,255],"tags":[3501],"class_list":["post-56248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-plaza-new-ws","category-children","tag-prayer-praying-with-children-children"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/20210430_152646_2_original-300x225.jpg\")
But, as children are wont to change, he has just begun to transition to a more verbal prayer.\u00a0 The last couple of nights, we\u2019ve asked Little Guy the question: \u201cWould you like to say something to God today?\u201d\u00a0 The first time, we got nothing in particular\u2014we got thumb-sucking (hence the spit-covered fist) and the continuance of snuggling with his bedraggled-beloved \u201cblankie.\u201d<\/p>\n