Prayers for Mom

Jacob prayed for me this morning.

"Please bless mom if she does yoga today. Because she does it in a parking lot and she has to do it on the hard floor and she puts a mat down on the hard floor but she can feel right through it."

Prayers - Growing, Learning, Changing

We're changing in the prayer department around here. Jakey - The beginning of last week, just a few days past his magic 18 month mark, Jakey began to fold his arms for prayer. It makes my heart melt. We say "oracion" (spanish for prayer) and he grins ear to ear and folds his arms across his chest, hands sticking up and out on either side with his dimple showing deeply. Maddie Mae - IF she makes her prayer any more complicated than, "Heavenly Father, thank you to bless the food, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen," she NEVER forgets to include a blessing for Claudia and Aimee. The one at dinner last night was particularly unique and funny. Brian and I had to stifle audible laughs. "Thank you to bless Claudia and Aimee. Bless them to not get eat up by monsters so they can be safe today and not get eated up today." Ben - Several months ago he moved into a private stage with his prayers. He no longer wants to do personal prayers with us. That's fine. I do know he's praying though because he tells me when and why he prays for me. It makes me happy to see his growing faith and understanding of God.

Time is a Relative Concept

I attended a church meeting tonight which was supposed to start at 5:00. I arrived just in time for the meeting and found only about four people in attendance. About 15 minutes later several more people arrived. Around 5:30 we had a good number of people and the meeting finally began. As with all church meetings, we started with a song (which we had to start over after the first verse because of technical difficulties with the music). So now we are well into the second half of the hour. Next came the prayer. I couldn't help but chuckle a little when I heard the following as part of the prayer: "Bless those who are not here so that they may arrive on time." I guess "on time" is a relative concept.

Lunch with the Little People

The boys (Ben and Anthony) are learning about magnets in kindergarten. While they waited for their lunches to come to the table Anthony started rubbing the top of the kitchen table with his palm. He pushed harder and harder and his focus got deeper and deeper on the task. Finally he told the other kids, "Look! See? It's magnatized now!" Then he looks at me and says, "Wow. I was pretty good. I'm just like a video you watch to learn about magnets!" Maddie is always wildly excited to pray any chance she gets. Yesterday Ben's comment when I chose her for the lunch prayer was, "Oh good. She prays the fastest in the whole family and I'm hungry. She just can't ever think of stuff to say." Today she said the lunch prayer, short and sweet. After a few minutes she hollers out at me, "Mom, I think we need to pray again." When asked why, she explained, "I prayed but my food is still hot." I guess that a 2 second prayer isn't quite long enough to cool a pizza at 450 to eating temp.

Maddie Praying "All By Myself"

Maddie typically has a one sentence prayer. Bless the food. That's it. On occasion she asks for help to think of more "stuffs to say". Tonight at dinner she wanted to do it alone. "Heavenly Father, Bless the food. Bless Aimee and Claudia with all the blessings that...that...that...we have. Bless Ben. Bless Maddie. Bless Daddy. Bless Mommy that is...that is...that is...ummm...my Mommy right there. Bless Gunny Bag to be healthy and strong when he eats our toys in his tummy when we don't clean them up. Amen." (Gunny Bag is our pillowcase that comes alive and eats toys that don't get cleaned up and keeps them until the next Saturday when he spits them back out.)

The Nice Guy Up There

While praying this afternoon, I was attacked by a t-rex. Needing some time to think and ponder a few things other than dinosaurs, I told my cute little t-rex that I was praying and I could come play in a few minutes. So she smiled at me and I bowed my head again. But she didn't leave. She stood quietly by my side. Watching. Waiting. Waiting. Watching. I'm sure she was thinking it would be fast. Why would a prayer be longer than, "Heavenly Father, thank you for the food. Name Jesus Christ Amen." Quick and simple, right? That is the exact thing Maddie says in every single one of her prayers. Unfortunately for her, I had a little more to discuss with God today than that. After a minute, she left and went into the living room with Ben where I heard her say, "Ben, Mom is pwaying wight now. She's talking to God. You know da God dat is da nice guy and da guy dat answers da prayers. 'Cause he walks on da clouds up dere." Then they both went back to playing.

Overlooking Miracles

Do you ever wonder how many miracles occur in your life everyday that you don't even notice? I've been thinking this through. I had the most terrible toothache for over a week. It was debilitating for day after day. I couldn't concentrate on anything that took real brain power. I was short with the kids. I had no patience for disobedience or sometimes even their innocent childlike silliness. Many times it had me in tears as waves of throbbing pain would emanate from my upper jaw. I prayed to make it through, hoping it was a sinus infection like the last time. Eventually it seemed less general and became centered in one single tooth. I finally decided to call the dentist because it wasn't getting better. Friday afternoon I called my brother-in-law who is in dental school. Our conversation lead me to believe there was nothing to do but call a dentist and go in. So I called my dentist. She had left just hours earlier for an over seas vacation. I could get an appointment for two weeks. That wasn't going to cut it. At least the office had just split in the last six months so I had another option. I called the other half of the practice for an appointment. He didn't work Fri, Sat or Sun. Okay, neither would I, but I really, really wanted to go in for an appointment and get some pain relief. I admitted defeat and knew the soonest I could reach anyone would be Monday morning. I told Brian I would need a blessing to make it through the weekend. I tried all day Saturday to concentrate and prepare my talk. I had to speak the next day to the congregation in sacrament meeting. How ironic that my topic was prayer. I prayed and prayed that I could bear the pain until I could see the dentist. Saturday at dinner I was still in tears still, despite taking pain meds and sudafed for sinus pressure intermittently. After dinner I had committments at a youth dance to lead a committee meeting beforehand then stay to chaperone. I went and dutifully did my jobs. At 10 pm it hit me like a ton of bricks. NO PAIN. Not even a little bit. I tried to think back to when it had left. I had no idea. I was so excited that I picked up my cell phone and dialed Brian so I could just tell someone my AMAZING news. Then I realized he would probably appreciate the time alone and chose not to call, but sat in my chair in amazement. Doesn't it make you wonder. How many miracles occur in my life everyday that I don't even notice? There seem to be constant annoyances we try to pray away from our everyday lives. I bet I have overlooked millions of answers to prayer simply because my life just returned to normal. The annoyance went away and I may have not even noticed. How ungrateful can I be? I think I need to try to be more attentive to the answers I get that I have been overlooking. I'm so grateful that God saw fit to take the pain away for me through that weekend. It hasn't been back since that evening. I was finally able to put my thoughts together about what I would speak about and it went well enough. I still think it is ironic that I received an answer to my prayers so that I could focus enough to speak on...prayer. How cool is that. God sure loves me. Even when I'm too self absorbed to notice all he does for me, he still showers me with his blessings and love.