Saturday, February 19, 2011

Dear God,

The sound of children praying touches my heart deeply. The innocence of toddlers, preschoolers making their prayers to you gives me the sense that generational faith makes a difference.

I spent the night with three of my grandchildren. As always we slept on the floor in our sleeping bags. When I awakened my five-year-old granddaughter stirred and turned over staring me in the face. "Hi Grandma." She said. There we engaged in the things on Lucy's mind as she shared one thing after another. She is never at a loss for words.

Later Lucy would pray at the kitchen table. "Dear God, thank you for letting Grandma come over." Lucy has a beautiful way of praying just like Gabrielle and Rylan. They know you and regularly pray for food, family, friends, people who are sick, and children around the world.

What inspires me is remembering my grandmother praying at meal times, at bedtime, in her chair when she read the Upper Room, in her Sunday School class that she helped lead and any other time when she felt led to pray. I often wondered if she prayed as she worked in her flower gardens and truck patch.

My grandmother's prayers taught me to pray and I taught my children. Now my children's children are praying to the same God my grandmother knew. I don't know how my grandchildren will turn out, what they will choose as their life's vocation, who they will marry or how they will live out their faith, I just know they know who to turn to during life's ups and downs. For that I am very grateful.

There is
a sweetness
to my
grandchildrens' prayers.
Thank you
for speaking
to them
and through them,
O God.
Please bless
their heavenly efforts
so they
may bless others
around them,
I pray.

Love, Andrea