One Small Prayer

"Train your child in the way he should go;

Even when he is older he will not depart from it."  

Proverbs 22:6

I really debated on writing this.  I want to preface this post by saying that I do not want to come across "holier than thou" or make this a brag about how spiritual my kid is.  As a mother there are a lot of areas I am screwing up and need some growth, but tonight I felt really proud and felt like I not only wanted to document this for myself, but also for Belle.

Tonight I walked Belle up to bed and as I go to tuck her in she says, "Mom, I want to put myself to bed."  My heart sank a little at how much she is growing up, and then I asked her what she wanted to pray for.  She replied, "I can pray by myself."  So, I left the room.

To be quite honest, I didn't think she was going to do any praying, and her plan was to push me out of the room as fast as possible so she could start playing instead of sleeping.  I gave her a kiss, left her room, and walked into my room.  I started to hear her speaking, so I snuck up to her door.  This is what I heard:

"Dear Lord,
Thank you for this day.
Thank you for the snow.
Thank you for the baby in Mom's belly.
Thank you that we have a mother that likes me and Evie more.
Thank you that we got to do crafts tonight.
Thank you for daddy.
Amen."

And with that, I knew I was doing my job.

I do have to laugh, however, at this prayer :-)  First, she is thankful to God for the snow every night.  I am also not sure whether or not she is thanking God that I love her and Evie more than the baby, OR if I love Evie more than her.  Either way, she is thankful!

Today I was feeling a bit frustrated.  I had fed the kids junk, we watched a lot of movies, Belle was whining a ton this morning, and to top it off she peed her pants and when I asked her to change her clothes she promptly went upstairs and peed on the rug in her room.  Really?!  But with that one prayer I knew that my MOST important job with my children was actually being accomplished.

Regardless of all the mistakes I made today and the set backs in our home with potty training and discipline, my Belle had grasped that prayer was important and she was actually talking to God in her own genuine way.  I was teaching her that a personal relationship with her Creator was important, and it was actually working!

It's so hard not to get caught up in what my kids "should" be doing and if I am doing things right.  I often forget that my most important task is to raise my kids to love the Lord and that knowing Him is more important than peeing on the potty (although, this might give me some sanity), making it to church on time, or trying to get more vegetables in my kids' diet.  At the end of the day, if Belle knows that she is loved by an amazing God and that she can talk to Him about anything, then I feel it was a successful day.

Tonight, amidst all my other failure as a mother, I got it right.