<\/p>\n
We were sitting at dinner a few days ago. William (who is two-years old) had
\ncleaned his plate, which had consisted of cous cous, pears, and hot dogs. I
\noffered him more pear. I should have recognized the problem before it even
\nreached his mouth. This pear came out of the salad Peter and I were eating, so
\nit had dressing on it. But William popped it in and then stuck out his tongue
\nwith wide eyes.<\/p>\n
After I helped him clear his palate of the offending taste,
\nhe said, “Mom. Yuck in my mouth. Please pray for me.”<\/p>\n
Peter and I suppressed our smiles. I prayed out loud for
\nWilliam. And we all got back to eating. <\/p>\n
It was but one in a series of episodes last week involving
\nWilliam and a burgeoning interest in prayer\/God\/the Bible. We pulled into
\nchurch on Sunday and he asked, “Is this my church that I love?” Another day, I
\nfound him paging through a small black notebook of his father’s. He looked up
\nat me and said, “I want to read this Bible book.” Then, we were putting them to
\nbed a few nights ago and William said, “Let’s pray for Penny feel better.” (She
\nhad said earlier that she was tired.)<\/p>\n
I know better than to think William fully understands what
\nprayer is, or who God is. For him, God and Jesus are akin to superheroes, and
\npart of our role as parents is to help our kids grow up with the recognition
\nthat these figures from the Bible aren’t the same as the ones from television
\nand fairy tales. <\/p>\n
And yet, I also know that Jesus told us to pay attention to
\nthe faith of little children. He told us to pray like children. To be bold in
\nour requests with our heavenly Father, as children are of their parents. And he
\ntold us that the kingdom of heaven, “belongs to such as these.” <\/p>\n
So I will try to do my bumbling part in modeling a life of
\nfaith. And I will also try to learn from the simple and direct faith of my
\nchildren, even if it involves praying about pears. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We were sitting at dinner a few days ago. William (who is two-years old) had cleaned his plate, which had consisted of cous cous, pears, and hot dogs. I offered him more pear. I should have recognized the problem before it even reached his mouth. This pear came out of the salad Peter and I…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith","category-family"],"yoast_head":"\n