Tiny prayers

What I would give to be a child again. I was just saying to my husband when my 10 month old daughter woke up 5 minutes after I laid her down last night- "If I were her and I had nothing to worry about I would be sleeping. I want to sleep!" As a child hopefully all you have to worry about is playing, snacking, going outside and watching your favorite movie. Life is, more or less, pretty easy.

As you probably well know, adult life is way different. I am increasingly disappointed at the amount of stuff I forget and misplace just because my brain is so full of other stuff I just can't manage one more thing. My stepson (10) gets angry and says "you guys make me do everything myself" when he goes to take a shower and then calls from inside the shower, in the bathroom, that he needs his towel- and we won't get it. We aren't living in a Life Styles of the Rich and Famous house. Our bathroom is 20 square feet (an estimate). He doesn't understand that asking him to get his own towel is not some sort of parental torture, it's just taking one thing off our plates to do or remember to do. Not to mention, it teaches him responsibility. He has no idea what we do in a day's time. Here is an example of what my morning looks like:

Sofia gets up and gets me up. Shhhhh don't wake up the baby. Get out of bed. Get Luke up. Open blinds. Start breakfast. Clean counter off. Start dishwater. Read stories while breakfast is going. Oh, wait, Sofia wants to help with breakfast. Get a chair. Measure and explain every action. Get down. Put chair back. Is that the baby crying? Luke, go get dressed. Sofia, you have to go potty? You already did? Did you wipe?

This probably sounds vaguely familiar. It's a wonder that I've only left my house once without shoes on.

Adult life is great and all, but some days it would be nice to be a child again. By having children of my own, I kind of get to regress a bit when I play pretend with my girls or read princess stories. You'd think I would be the "teacher" in my relationship with my kids but so many times they are teaching me. Many of the lessons I learn speak to my faith.

When I was a little child, I didn't know about praying. We prayed at dinner time and before bed but that was it. I didn't know that there was a God you knew me personally and that I could talk to him directly through prayer, as if talking to a friend. I decided that as a parent, I wanted to teach my children about prayer early on. Sofia is becoming a top-notch pray-er. The other day she fell and skinned up her knees on the sidewalk. We prayed together before nap time that Jesus would help her knees to heal. So, when I got my wisdom teeth out a couple of days ago, she prayed for God to heal me:

Dear God
-pause-
please heal my mommy's mouth
-pause-
and her chin
-pause-
and her tongue
-pause-
and her mouth.
-pause-
Help her to feel better
-pause-
and be with Grandma Judy, because she died
-pause-
and the Little Mermaid. Amen.

I thought it was totally sweet. Everyone can learn from the innocence of a tiny prayer like this one. We don't need to use a bunch of fancy words or say "God" or "Jesus" a lot. We just need to say what is on our hearts. Even if it is the Little Mermaid. :)

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But Jesus said, "Let the children come to me. Don't stop them! For the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to those who are like these children."

Matthew 19:14