The Puddles

Praying in our family has always been a part of routine.  We routinely pray at each meal. We routinely pray every night.  We pray at every car accident that we pass by.  We pray at church. We pray when we are in need.  But our prayers are “routine.” More rote than meaningful.  We even throw in some Lutheran indoctrination by having the kids say the Apostle’s creed every night as part of our routine.  I thought that we were doing good.  When the kids were little, we use to let them lead the prayers but they tended to get really lengthy . . . and I mean they went on for-ev-er.  We didn’t want to discourage their prayers so we wouldn’t stop them, but the meal was cold by the time they would get done.  It almost felt like a competition each night to see who could go the longest.  So we turned to rote prayers to help us move through prayers and to get to the next part of our schedule.

This all sounds terrible. I know that contrary to all of this that our kids are comfortable praying in front of friends and can lead groups in prayer.  I’ve seen it happen.  But I don’t know that they know “how” to pray.  Of course, do any of us?  As Lutherans we often struggle with this.  Too often we leave it up to the pastor to lead us.  But we need to be better at it.  I owe it  my children to teach them to pray meaningfully. And to give myself credit . . . I know that we have taught our children the importance of prayer and have built it into our daily routine. Now it is time to take it to the next level.

With a huge sigh, I realize that it must start with me.  I need to focus on my own prayer life and build from there.  I realized that I needed to do better a few weeks ago when Ainsley had a friend spend the night.  When it was time to tuck the kids into bed, we were praying and I asked her what she prayed at night expecting her to tell us a rote prayer.  She told us that she prays for something that she is thankful for, then she prays for those who are hurting or in need, and finally she blesses everyone in her family.  Then she lead us in prayer. So cool.  And I thought . . . and a little child will lead us.  That is a great outline for nighttime prayers!  We are not telling them what to say.  We are just setting an outline and then the kids can fill in the blanks.

So we have been trying this out for the last few weeks.  Some nights are better than others.  The kids can get stuck on what to pray for.  But it is a start.  The kids seem empowered by the outline.  So our prayers are more meaningful than before. Of course, the kids want to do the new prayer and then add the rest of our normal prayers at the end.  So I think prayers took 10 minutes last night.  New prayer, “Now I lay me” prayer, Lord’s prayer, and Apostle’s creed can take some time.  It’s too bad that the amount of time spent in prayer doesn’t get you to the front of the line in heaven! I am grateful for this new change.  The kids want me to participate too, so we are all doing it together.  Each sharing what we are thankful for, each sharing something/someone in need who we must lift up in prayer, and then asking God to bless all of those closest to us.  It can be very powerful at times.  It is certainly bringing us closer to each other and making prayer about others and gratefulness and less about what we want from God.  Eventually we will get there, so that this becomes natural to them and helps them to have a closer relationship to God.