Thank Thee That . . . .

We have noticed that when Alex says his nightly personal prayer, he always repeats the same thing. It usually goes in long spurts . . . each one-liner lasting a couple of weeks or so. The one lately has been, "Dear Heavenly Father, Thank thee for this day. Thank thee that I can be like Jesus. Thank thee that we can drive home safely. In the name of Jesus Christ Amen." Keep in mind, he prays that we will drive home safely when we are already home and he is about to get into bed. :) He always follows this prayer with, "Are we going anywhere tomorrow?" Hmmmm?

Anyway, so we felt it was important for him to maybe understand a little better who he is praying to, why we pray, and the importance of praying for meaningful things . . . instead of a memorized prayer. All this to a three year old, without squashing his faith and confidence, is a difficult task.

So, Joseph prepared our Family Home Evening for this week on the subject of prayer. He played a game with phones to give the idea of speaking to someone we can't see, and then talked about where we came from and how we lived with our Heavenly Father before, and how talking to Heavenly Father about our day, just like Alex does to Daddy, is important because he misses us and wants to know how we are feeling. It went as well as possible with three small children. :)

So, tonight as I was putting Alex to bed, he knelt to say his prayer, and this was what he said, "Dear Heavenly Father, Thank thee that we could go to the pumpkin patch today. Thank thee that we got to ride the hay ride and play with my friends. Thank thee that Mercedes can drive home safely. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

He then said, "See Mommy, this time I prayed that Mercedes would drive home safely!"

Mercedes is my friend who took him to his school field trip today for me and brought him home. :) He is trying. What a dear.

(Alex)