At our house, for the last 10 years (since an existence of a thing called "siblings") our kids battle to say prayers. Seriously, they all but throw fists over it. I guess it's a good thing that they all want to pray, but it seems really ironic to have a spirit of contention in our home when we're trying to avoid that very thing through our prayers. And with the several times we pray during the day (morning family prayer, breakfast prayer, lunch prayer, dinner prayer, evening family prayer--5 minimum) this really shouldn't be a problem, right? Wrong-O.
After we've tried going in a certain orders (youngest to oldest, oldest to youngest, a certain day of the week, etc.) with no real success, we finally told them that Dad will be the one to decide who prays. Yet despite this "administrative policy" a few of them continue to ask and beg to pray. Even after Jared has assigned someone to pray (often times the child who asked to pray first), there usually remains a disgruntled child or two who we have wait a good 30-45 seconds for to stop grumbling so we can proceed. Nowadays, JJ is the first one to "fold his arms" and look around expectantly waiting for the prayer to begin and time is of the essence!
Last night, I picked up a couple of pizzas for dinner, while Jared and Jake were at the General Priesthood session, and gathered the little kids around for the dinner prayer.
I said, "Okay, Karcyn. Say the prayer, please."
She obediently got reverent and began her prayer, "Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this day and for the--wait!!"
She startled us by her abrupt halt to the prayer. I thought something was wrong.
"What??"
"You mean I actually got to say the prayer without having to ask??" she clarified incredulously.
"Yes, Karcyn."
"Wow...okay. We can pray now."
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1 comment:
How funny! We have lots of little people wanting to pray too... though I don't think any fists have been thrown over it. :)
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