It's The Little Things......

Today on the ride home my 5 year old told me that we had to pray for God before she did her homework today. I politely corrected her telling her that we are going to pray to God for her benefit. My mom recently began watching my two young ones and she doesn’t have them sitting around watching Nick Jr. She actively engages them in educational activities, artwork, and other fun learning activities. Prior to beginning any work they pray and ask the Holy Spirit to help them as they learn.

This is a prime example of planting seeds in young ones. Now my 5 and 2 year olds at a very young age are learning that one can go to God with any request. Now as we prayed before homework asking the Holy Spirit for help and guidance, my 11 year old Zoe laughed and remarked on how silly it was to pray to God for homework help. This was an educational opportunity. 1) I explained that God instructs us that we can come to him with any request no matter how trivial it may seem (Philippians 4:6 says Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God). 2) I suggested that she pray to the Holy Spirit for help with her disobedience and inability to keep her mouth shut when directed to do so….then there was silence.

When seeds such as this are planted at such a young age those seeds grow and begin to take hold. In this case reaping what you sow is a great thing. My children argue in the morning over who gets to say morning prayers. If I begin to say them Tina will yell at me that she wants to pray. She does the exact same thing with the blessing over the food. Tina often tries to say the prayer verbatim as I do, but I encourage her to pray from her heart. As adults we can learn from this as well. I have certain things that I have specific prayers for. I have conditioned myself to repeat the same thing over when I need to get out of habits and get into the heart. Tina actually ended a prayer in what originally sounded like gibberish but then it dawned on me that she ended the prayer in her own “prayer language”. I said was that your prayer language and she said yes mommy, I hear you do it sometimes. That shows that kids are listening when we least expect it. That goes with the good and the bad. I’m waiting for my two youngest to call someone a backside orifice since they heard their older sister say it earlier today but I pray in one ear and out the other.

As a mother I am learning that sometimes it’s the little things that mean the most. Small steps and small seeds today will lead to Godly behavior, God fearing, and God depending children. Those are a few crops that I will patiently wait to be harvested.

Special Note: The girls are no longer sleeping in my bed!! And I want to thank you for your prayers and encouragement. What a difference a few weeks can make. ~Smile~



Peace & Love
Michele

Until next time....Wednesday, March 24th!

Thursday's Blog: Ponnie returns to give you Part II of "The Voice!" It was very funny and I personally can't wait to see how it ends.