My Children’s Prayers

Posted by paigeoverstreet on Jul 1, 2010 in Daily Bread | 7 comments

We pray with our boys Jack, 8, and Will, 5, most nights just before their bedtime, and we have a routine. Daddy or Mommy takes the lead (the “long” prayer), then calls on the rest of the family when it’s their turn to pray. I try to use the ACTS pattern as a reminder to begin with adoration, then confession (usually just a general – “forgive us for not following in Your will today, Lord.” At home with kids – or any day – my list of sins is way longer than their attention span.), then thanksgiving, and finally supplication. It helps me stay on track, because I’m usually tired, and I hope that it gives my children an example they can follow in their prayers…someday.

Our cue for the boys is “…and Jack would like to pray for….” and he takes off on his completely rote, unbelievably fast, and pretty exhaustive list of the same things he prays for every night. We sometimes stop him and ask him to slow down, so that we can actually understand the words, but we really know them all by now. We just want him to think of each person as he says their name, and hopefully he’ll remember why he’s praying for them. The reason it is so exhaustive is that once you make it on the list, you never come off. Here’s how it goes: “I pray for

Maw Maw (my mom),
Paw Paw (my stepdad),
Mitzi and Maddie (their dog and cat; the new dog, Molly, hasn’t been added to the list),
Mimi & Papa (Jay’s parents),
Aunt Megan (David’s ex-wife) and
Uncle David (Jay’s brother)
Samson (David’s dog) and Bailey (their dog that now lives with Megan)
Uncle Jason (my brother)
Paw Paw Mar (my dad)
Carlisle (Jay’s uncle)
Carlisle (their second cousin, granddaughter of above uncle) and
Carlyle ( a girl from their school who’s been undergoing reconstructive leg surgeries for almost two years.)
Thomas (second cousin)
Jonah (neighbor’s cousin that had a liver transplant last summer)
Baby Ethan and Baby Frances (neither are babies anymore, and both have or had heart conditions)
and for the oil spill (our most recent addition, and one we will unfortunately need to keep praying for probably as long as Jack keeps it on his list.)

Then we say, “And Will would like to pray for….” and his almost unintelligible list, because it’s fast and mumbled, goes like this:

Maw Maw and Paw Paw
Mitzi and Maddie
Mimi and Papa, and
Ms. Pierson (Diane – she always got the end cap from Will, until he added)
and the oil spill.

Why list this for you? Because I often want to correct them. It’s one of the hardest jobs as a parent to bite your tongue and let them do something DIFFERENTLY than how you would do it. Why is that so hard? Because I think I know the right way to do it. But prayer? Do I know the right way to pray? (No.) Is there a right way to pray? (No. I don’t think so.) So we let them continue to pray the way they want to talk to God, even if we think it’s disrespectful to blurt out a long list at Him. Regardless, I honestly like being reminded to pray for all these folks as their names come flying past me. The familiarity, as in so many other things, is comforting. I like Will’s consistency and conciseness. I like Jack’s persistence in keeping people on his list, even when we deem they don’t “need” our prayers anymore. I like that there are people already on the list when they do need our prayers (Uncle Carlisle just had his lower leg amputated and will get a prosthesis soon.)

Oswald Chambers says, in reference to 1 Corinthians 2:16, “The purpose of God is not to answer our prayers, but by our prayers we come to discern the mind of God.” My prayer is that I will “come to discern the mind of God” – even if it’s just a little bit every day. I want that for my children, too. So I’ll keep letting them pray their lists and pray that God reveals Himself to them through their prayers. When I listen to their prayers, He definitely reveals Himself to me!