Live. Laugh. Love.: Story Stretchers: Prayer

The family that prays together...

I bought this book for Will & Sophie for Easter this year after reading and loving the text (a prayer) and noticing (a little astonishingly) how similar the children in the story look compared to my own.

Here are some exerpts:

"I know you're up in heaven, God, and can hear my voice from there. I'm just a little child. Will you answer my short prayer?

Whenever I feel really scared and want to hide my head, please help me to be brave and strong and face my fears instead.

And when my heart is very sad, and tears roll down my face, please help me to be happy so a smile can take their place.

Whenever I feel all mixed up, unsure of what to do, please show me what the right path is and help me follow you.

And when I act a little bad, not like I know I should, forgive me, God. Please don't be mad, and help me to be good."

"Whenever I feel all alone, with not a friend in sight, please let me know you're here with me, and everything's all right.

Now if I'm being selfish, God, by asking for too much, I'd like to tell you thank you for a bunch of other stuff....

[leaving out a little]
I don't know what the future holds or what's in store for me. Right now I'm just a little kid and don't know what to be.

[leaving out a little more]

But when I trust in you, my God, and in your plan for me, I know there's nothing in the world that I can't do or be.

So now this little prayer of mine is coming to an end. There's really just one other thing I'd like to ask again. Please love me, God, forevermore. That's all I want. Amen."

Story time before bed has occasionally been a joint thing for both kids as of late. It saves time when we're getting to bed later (ah, summer...) and they like to sit on either side of me in one of their beds and listen together. So this prayer book has been one of our staple reads. They both love it and love that we call the book characters "Will & Sophie".

Following joint story time, they've also been saying prayers together instead of separately.

I know I've written our bedtime prayer here before, but I'll share it again. Will has had it memorized for at least a year and Sophie is really catching on. She's also catching on to "Bless Us, Oh Lord" before meals and she's attempting to mimic our "Sign of the Cross".

Dear Lord,

Thank you for this day.

Thank you for mommy & daddy, Will & Sophie, Brutus & all of our family and friends.

Thank you for our safety, and our health, and our freedom.

Please keep us healthy and safe tomorrow.

Help us to sleep well tonight,

so that we can have a good day tomorrow,

and be good people,

and make good choices.

Amen.

We are not avid church-goers (and I'm not proud of that), but we are teaching our children to have a relationship with God. Craig will often pray with us whenever we're all in the room together.

Following the above prayer, I ask them (or Will asks me) if they (I) have any special prayers for anyone/any thing. We always say special prayers for people when they travel, when it's their birthday, when someone is sick or feeling sad, or for whatever crosses the kids' minds that evening. Sophie doesn't completely understand this but she plays along.

A couple other books we've been including with that prayer book when I read to the kids together are "May There Always Be Sunshine" by Jim Gill and "Someday" by Alison McGhee.

The "May There Always Be Sunshine" book is based on the song by Jim Gill that I've been singing to the kids since they were born. We all LOVE IT and Will has loved filling in what he wants there to "always be" for quite a long time now. That's basically what the song is about: a really sweet tune repeating "May there always be...(fill in the blank)" where kids can say some favorite noun that they want there to "always be". Sophie doesn't get it yet... she ALWAYS says "May there always be Soapy!" :) I highly recommend you listen to the song on Jim's website (link above on his name).

One favorite memory I have involving the kids and this song is when I was singing it to Sophie in her darkened bedroom before bed when she was a newborn. Her door was opened just a crack and Will walked by and heard me singing it and poked his little 2-year-old face in the crack and sang "May there always be 'us'". Totally melted my heart and I gave him a lot of extra hugs and kisses after tucking Sophie in.

I think everyone has read (and cried over) the "Someday" book. Right?

Here's one more I found at the library last week. It's more a collection of prayers - all short and simple - written by various people. We only read it a couple of times, but it was cute.