Cheering for God

Praying with our children is a priority for my husband and I. Since the boys were born they have watched us pray before every meal. As they have gotten older we have been more deliberate in making sure they see us put our hands together, make the sign of the cross, and so on.

A few months back we also started saying a prayer before their bedtime each night. We've kept it simple for now with just the sign of the cross and the Guardian Angel prayer.

It was incredibly adorable when one day one of the boys put their hands together when we started praying. I don't even remember any longer if it was at dinner or before bed. But just so cute!! Eventually both boys started doing it. Never for very long, but they knew when we said "It's time to pray" to put their hands together.

Around the same time, their doctor had asked if they knew how to clap. They did not. So we started trying to teach them to clap. Didn't take too long for them to pick that up.

Can you guess where this is going?

Oh yeah, prayer time now means clapping. We put our hands together to pray and the boys light up and start clapping!

At fourteen months old, I think it's totally adorable!

It also brought to mind for me how we should sometimes approach prayer. We pray for many reasons and one of those reasons is to thank God for the blessings we have in our life. I love the enthusiasm they both have for clapping their hands together. It's a great reminder to me that our prayers can be full of enthusiastic thankfulness for everything God has given us. It always brings a smile to my face.

I think my boys have this prayer thing down pretty well.