a family that prays together ...

This is Hunter.  Praying before we ate dinner at McDonald’s.  This photo fills my heart with love and joy.

I grew up praying before meals.  And as soon as I was old enough and out of my parents house, I left that tradition behind.  Do you have any idea how embarrassing it was to pray in a restaurant?  With everyone watching?

Today, I wouldn’t trade that tradition for the world.  Or the faith that my mom instilled in me.

I hope someone sees us praying ... I mean, honestly ... how adorable are those chubby little hands?  :)

Piper says prayer most of the time, and Hunter used to say she wanted a turn ... “me turn” ... so we had her go last because she would just fold her little hands, close her eyes, we’d wait a bit, I’d say amen and she’d say “eat!”  Seriously, the most precious thing ever!

Now, she’s actually saying little graces.  Tonight, Piper prayed first, thanking God for our food and for mom & dad.  Then Hunter took her turn and mumbled out pretty much what Piper had just said.

The power of prayer ...

I seriously had no idea.  I was just oblivious, indifferent, blase, uncaring, uninterested, casual, unmoved, nonchalant about prayer.  {yeah, I just used my thesaurus}

I seriously had no idea what prayer could mean.  And maybe it was because I really didn’t know how to pray either?  I hear great prayers from our pastor, or my parents, or youth leaders ... and I just didn’t feel my little prayer would or could have the same power or impact.

I was wrong.

And what I want to teach my children is the power of prayer.  Anytime, anyway, any subject.  Doesn’t matter.  All God wants us to do is talk to him.  He’s our friend, right?  We talk to our friends ... wouldn’t it be great, actually, if God had email?

I’m trying to be very diligent about getting the kids to pray before meals {no matter where we are and seriously, I dohope people see us}, and before bedtime ... so that they slowly learn, they can talk to God anytime ... day or night.

It was a little hard getting them to open up and pray and know what to talk about or say ... and recently I read a blog post {awesome blog, in general, if you have some time to take a peek} where she mentions how she has her kids pray.  I tried it and it’s been working wonderfully!  Three things:

1. 1)Tell God something you’re grateful for.
   

2. 2)What’s one thing you want to pray about.
   

3. 3)What’s one thing you want to apologize to God about.
   

I think that’s genius and it’s really been helping the girls make prayer more real.

When we first started, it was a little difficult for them to understand what I was saying, or what they should do ... so I would start and pray.  The first few times, I would pray “for my friends that are sick and that God would heal them, take away their pain and make them feel better.”

The next night, and for about a week and a half afterwards {and actually, tonight was the first night she didn’t}, Wynter would pray for mommy’s friends that were sick.  Cute ... once she prayed that God would take away their colds.  Innocence of children, huh?