I intentionally only gave the title of the next chapter in Mitten Strings for God because I wanted to leave it open for interpretation for those of you without the book. Grace could be interpreted as "God's Grace" or "Graceful" among other things, I'm sure. I look forward to reading what you decided Grace means for your family.
I'm going to write about grace as in "saying grace".
We pray as a family before our meals. We hold hands forming somewhat of a circle around the table. Jeff leads. The boys are still working on staying quiet and focusing. (go figure...)
Years ago, when Will was an only child, he and I started saying this little prayer when we were home alone for meals:
God is great. God is good. Let us thank Him for our food. By His hands, we are fed. Thank you, Lord, for daily bread. In Jesus' name, Amen.Now that he's older, we've asked Will if he wants to lead the family prayer, and sometimes he does, but always with this same prayer. For his age, I suppose that's fine, but I know many other children say their own prayers from their own thoughts, so I feel kind of bad in that I might have given him the wrong impression that God wants the same repetitious prayer all the time.
Even at night, he won't say his own prayer before going to sleep because he says he doesn't know any bedtime prayers. I've tried to explain over and over and over again that he doesn't have to know a specific prayer; he can just talk to God. But as always, he declines to lead. He'll tell me what he wants me to pray for, he just won't do it himself... at least not out loud... and that's okay.
Prayer is a very personal part of the relationship with God. I know I have a hard time praying out loud, too. I just hope that through praying aloud with him (and the other boys, too) that they are learning that prayer is for anytime and can be said many ways.
On a different note, though, Nathan is so cute when we get ready to pray at night. He closes his eyes so tightly and puts his little hands together up near his chin. He'll say, "Pay, mama, pay." (Pray, mama, pray) I can't help but smile to see him do these rituals (I say rituals because neither eye-closing nor hands together are commanded in the Bible for prayer). It doesn't take more than 5 seconds though for those eyes to open and the hands to start doing something else, but in those 5 seconds he's got me fooled into thinking he's the sweetest kid on earth. :)
Anyway, this subject of saying grace/prayer is a HUGE can of worms. More than I could hope to put down in a single post. I just wanted to take a minute to put down some thoughts on this so years from now I'll see how far we've come (I hope). Will already leads the congregation in song during a short youth-lead devotion before worship services. Talk about a mama's heart soaring! :) Maybe in the next couple of years he'll gain the confidence to lead a prayer, but even if he doesn't, that's ok. That might not be a talent of his.
God will bless each of us as He sees fit, it's up to us to do our part... and that's not always easy, no matter what age you may be.
So, what does Grace mean in your household?
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Join us next Friday for the topic of
RHYTHM
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