Micayla's Prayers

We've been encouraging Micayla to pray with us at mealtimes, at bedtime, and then throughout the day as needs arise. She's pretty good about folding her hands and and closing her eyes and bowing her head. A lot of times at lunch/dinner, she'll say "Thank you God for our food, Amen." It's quite endearing for this Mommy to hear her pray, and while she might not understand the full concept of praying, we're still trying to instill in her that we love and serve a God that can and does listen to us all the time.

We're at home again this Sunday morning, so we're watching church online and I've been showing her what regular service is like since she's obviously still in the nursery right now. She loves singing along to the music, and prayed with our pastor this morning. Here is a almost verbatim transcript of her prayer:

"Thank you God for our day. Thank you God for Daddy. And for Frances and Memaw and Papaw. Pray for sister in the right time. Thank you God for my sucker at bank. And my necklaces."

Here's a couple of interesting things about this prayer:

1. Frances is a goat at my in-laws ranch.
2. Memaw and Papaw are Hudson's parents.
3. We pray each night that God would bring Micayla a brother or sister in the right time. She almost always changes it to sister only.
4. She doesn't understand why I won't let her have her sucker from the bank this morning for breakfast.

Y'all, she prays for Frances almost everytime. (Whose name is actually Francesca, but that's another story.) I have to really work at not laughing at the contents of her prayers, but then I ultimately realize that there isn't anything that she holds back in talking about, asking for, etc., when she prays. And yet, I know there are times when I do hold back in my own prayer life because I think it is too small a requset, seems "silly" to mention in my prayers, or feel awkward in mentioning it in a prayer, despite the fact that I know that God knows my heart and my thoughts and there isn't anything that I keep hidden from Him. So, maybe I'll start to pray a little more like my child, who believes that nothing is "off limits" in praying towards a heavenly Father that truly cares about the clothes on our backs, the food that we eat, and ultimately, whether we've accepted Him as our Savior. Maybe praying for Frances isn't so funny after all.