Wednesday, April 29, 2009

The Letter "Q"

Tonight's verse was...

"Quick Lord, answer me, for I have prayed." Psalm 141:1

After our usual dancing and verse memorization, we sat in a circle. Michelle handed out four fruit snacks to each of us. We took turns and went around the circle praying about whatever was on our minds. This was designed mainly for Alayna. She has been quite shy about praying lately. We wanted her to have many opportunities to pray and get more comfortable. The suggestion came from a mentor mom at MOPS this week. She mentioned taking 4 or 5 of the same object (corn, fruit snack, smartie, toy, etc.) and having a prayer for each thing. This way they were simple prayers and she wouldn't feel intimidated.

The prayers were precious. Josiah prayed for his friend Isaac, his dad to be a good teacher, for everyone to stop smoking, and for everything in the whole universe. Alayna was thankful that her family was nice, that her dad's students would learn a lot, and was thankful for our family. After her second prayer she giggled a bit and with that teeny bit of pressure, let out an adult sized "toot." That set us all into a good round of laughter!! (Family Time's are not totally serious, that is for sure!!) Michelle and I prayed for our church, friends, family, each other and grandparents in a kid friendly way. It was very sweet, funny, and sincere.

We were so proud that Alayna opened up tonight about praying out loud. God hears even her quietest prayers, but we would like her to feel comfortable to pray out loud with all of us...of all places to feel confident praying out loud would be at home. Even at supper tonight it was her turn to pray...often times she will say, "Josiah can pray for me tonight". Josiah feels very comfortable praying out loud and is always ok with that idea. Tonight however, she picked a picture (we have a box of pictures on our table, they are pictures we received from people with Christmas letters and we pull out a different picture to pray for) and very confidently prayed for my brother and each member of his family....then half way through supper she said, "I forgot to pray for their cats" and so we stopped eating so she could pray for their 2 cats too. This is truly an answer to my prayers.

We desire for her (and all our kids) to feel confident in her love for Jesus and His love for her and to share with her friends about Him and to pray whenever and wherever. Tonight was a big step for her....our verse was very fitting because after talking about it yesterday and praying for her, God truly answered my prayer 'quickly'.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Michelle,

I'm so glad...I was thinking about her after you asked your question at MOPS. Yea, for little steps in the right direction! Kristi