Virtute.org

I’m teaching a lesson about prayer on Sunday and I thought a fun attention getter would be to read some of the things I had written down about my children’s experiences with prayer.  I’m not sure that I’ll use any of them, but all these memories were too fun not to share:

1.26.06 This evening Isaac came into the living room and folded his arms and said ‘Amen’.  I asked him if he wanted to pray and he got down on his knees.  So I said a little prayer with him.  He stood up at the end of the prayer and then returned to his knees and said ‘Amen’ again.  We repeated this process about 5 times, till I said ‘thank thee for snacks and crackers.’  He then ran to the pantry to indicate he wanted some crackers.

4.1.06  In Nursery they end up having group prayers because all the kids are so anxious to join in.  Isaac has started trying to help others pray as a result.  He also has developed a habit of clapping at the end of prayers because he was praised when he folded his arms for prayers or kept his arms folded for the duration of a prayer.  During conference he would perk up when he heard someone pray.  He tried to pray with the prayer and clapped at the end.  He also sang and danced with the Mormon tabernacle Choir (which he also does most Sundays when we watch ‘Music and the Spoken Word.’)

2.3.07  Isaac’s prayers generally consist of long lists of thank yous “thank you garbage truck, thank you train tracks, thank you door, etc.”  Tonight in his prayer he added the actions of each item he appreciated “thank you cement truck pours concrete, thank you tow truck helps cars-cars say thank you, thank you barn cars drive up up up, thank you monster truck drives on cars, etc”

9.9.07  In his prayer tonight he said “thank thee for Mommy and Daddy, and Jill Pole, and Eustace, and Jack and Aunt Krista and the Neighbors, and Uncle Toby, and Grandma Bunny”  I looked over at Zach who was also amused by his unusual list.

9.24.07 Charlotte and I pray together.  It started out just at night when I’d say prayers with her before laying her in her crib.  She’d start saying “Thank you, Isaac.  Thank you, mommy.  Thank you, daddy. . . .” with a big “Amen” at the end.  It wasn’t long after she started saying night time prayers that she started also joining in on other prayers.  Now she’s to a point where we say the prayer over dinner and we can hear her sweet little voice saying  “Thank you, Isaac.  Thank you, mommy.  Thank you, daddy. . . .” Our prayers at night often have a little girly echo and even in sacrament when someone gets up to pray we often see Charlotte bow her head, fold her arms and say “Thank you, Isaac.  Thank you, mommy.  Thank you, daddy. . . .”

Last night we had some family over for dinner and Isaac was so anxious to eat that he pointed to his grandfather and said “Grandpa, close your eyes and put your arms like this” after which he demonstrated his best praying posture.

2.12.08 Isaac’s prayers are sometimes interesting.  I remember one night he said “thank thee for Charlotte not being good for prayer.”  Recently he said “thank thee for all the good things, thank thee for all the naughty things, thank thee for things that will bite me.”  Tonight in his prayer he said “thank thee for naughtyness.”

2.23.08 Isaac ran in to the kitchen where I was making dinner and announced “Mommie, I asked Heavenly Father on my knees for donuts.”  I told him that if he cleaned up his books, I’d give him a brownie and he responded by asking if Heavenly Father would give him donuts after the brownie.

8.8.08  Zach has been encouraging Isaac to be more specific in his prayers.  One night as Isaac was saying his prayers and he said "thank thee for all the blessings" Zach prodded him by asking "which blessings" to which Isaac responded "Thank thee for blessing number 8 and blessing number 9."

2008-08-20  Isaac asked Heavenly Father that "the cars that drive by that are too noisy will be bitten by the tigers" in his prayer tonight.

"All our prayers are working!"   — Isaac, after praying to find things and then finding them.

"it IS a night time prayer!"  — Charlotte, after thanking Heavenly Father for the food and blessing it in her bedtime prayer.  Her mother told her that she said a dinner prayer, but she insisted it was a night time prayer and continued to bless the food for several more nights.

11.7.08 Charlotte has become more independent in her prayers lately.  Instead of just repeating the same phrases over or waiting for help, she has started adding new ones.  Here are a few favorites from this week:  "Bless us to have good dreams.  Bless us to have another good dream."  "Bless that all my dreams will work."

Last week Isaac said "Thank thee that I’m not worried that I’ll never see my aunt Krista again."

Last night he woke up crying which was extremely rare for him.  When I came in he said worms were all over his bed.  I convinced him to say a prayer and he prayed that all the worms would die.  He woke up crying a second time and said that "grabbing things" were in his bed this time.  He then prayed that all the grabbing things would die.  I brought him into my bed after that.  Tonight he was afraid that worms would come in through the door and prayed in his nighttime prayer that all the worms would die.

2.11.09 In his nighttime prayer ". . .thank thee that tigers didn’t jump up to uncle Bryan’s plane and knock wood into it. . ."

2.22.09  "I prayed that the key to the game would show up right here" –Isaac upon remembering that a game he was playing was missing a piece that had been lost for months.  At the end of the day, I happened upon said key deep in the couch cushions of the couch he had pointed to.

3.1.09 Isaac was helping me build a dresser when I discovered a few pieces were missing.  I said I was going to sweep the floor to see if I could find the missing pieces.  He said in essence, you don’t need to look I’ll just go pray for Heavenly Father to help us find it.  He ran into the living room, knelt said "Thank thee that we can find the missing pieces." then ran back in and said "They’re on their way!"

3.2.09 Isaac woke up this morning complaining that his leg hurt.  He said it would feel better if he had some "Jesus rope" so he said a prayer and asked "thank thee to give me Jesus rope so that my leg could get better."  When I asked what Jesus rope is, he replied that it was a special kind of medicine.  At breakfast he continued to talk about this Jesus rope and offered to "shake it" to his sister which he did by taking her hand and giving her hand a little shake.

7.7.09 Charlotte said "bless us to have lunch tomorrow" in her prayer

7.17.09 I just overheard Isaac advising Charlotte on how to pray for his bicycle horn which she called a "honk"–she blessed the "honk" to get better (it fell off his bike)

1.24.09 Charlotte was mad after I turned off the piano (which she had playing a generic beat).  She couldn’t figure out how to turn it back on and started to scream and cry in frustration.  Isaac became very annoyed with how noisy she was, but I told him that I wanted him to ignore her and play in the other room, next thing I know he comes in and tells me that he prayed for her to stop crying and as she started to quiet down he excitedly proclaimed "Heavenly Father listened to me!"

Other Prayer memories:
One day when Isaac was little I had given him a new pair of sandals because his old pair were broken.  As he strapped the new pair on, he said “mom, we should pray about my old sandals, then I could have two pairs of sandals”

Sometime in the last year Isaac was particularly sick with vomiting and felt too miserable to get out of bed.  Charlotte prayed that he would get better.  He vomited again and Charlotte said another prayer, but this time she asked for him to get better “right now!”  He wasn’t immediately healed, but it was worth a shot.

After watching several specials on 9/11 for the upcoming 10 year anniversary, Isaac decided that he really wanted to go to New York City.  We told him that it would be very expensive, but we thought it would be fun to go some day.  A few days later he said “bless us to have a safe trip to New York” in the family prayer.