Praying with my baby

Today was my first time praying with Rosie. I think I never did it out loud with her before b/c my thinking is that she doesn't get it anyways. The truth is, she probably doesn't right now. But it won't be long before she does, and I want it to already be in place.

She's only 3 months- so I have to admit it was a little strange getting that "Dear God" out. But as I started talking, it was a really sweet time with Jesus and Rosie before putting her down for bed. I want that to become so much of an evening routine so that it's weird when we don't talk to Jesus before bed.

What did I pray for?

That God would keep her healthy, help her to sleep sweetly, and that He would bring Rosie to treasure Him above all. I prayed that James and I would always point her to Jesus. May God be gracious in our parenting with her, and save our itty-bitty sinner :)

Prayer & Preschoolers: Part I

Each month during the regular school year, I sit down with each child and we talk to God together. Usually it goes something like this:

Me: Sarah, what would you like to talk to God about? What would you like to pray about?

Sarah: My dog pixie to go to heaven.

I try to talk about how God shows us his goodness through pets and then we thank God for little Pixie. I haven’t prayed for any dead dogs to go to heaven yet J

More recently, I’ve been trying to give them more options for prayer. For example “Sarah, when we talk to God, we can tell him He’s good, we can say sorry for something, we can thank Him for something or we can ask about something.” Since doing that, I’ve been getting a little more from their hearts. Though simple gratitude’s like “I thank God for circles and squares” still seem to be awesome things to tell God.

Stay tuned: tomorrow, I will post Part II of Prayer & Preschoolers. Hope you stop by for that as well.

Confession

A.C.T.S. Oh yea you’ve heard that acronym before! This is printed on a bookmark of mine. It stands for Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving and Supplication. It’s meant to keep our crazy wandering minds focused during prayer. It was given as a gift from a woman at church- and what a blessing it has been for me-as God has used this to help me get back to talking to Him again.

More specifically, confession has been an interesting part of prayer for me. So often I thank God for His goodness and move along to my needs. But with this reminder to CONFESS and verses like I John 1:9 saying “If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness,” confessing has really made me take a look at the things I struggle with. It’s no joke-almost daily I find myself asking forgiveness for bitter, prideful and arrogant thoughts! It isn’t now until I’ve realized that this is seriously a struggle for me. Wow, God wants us to confess for a reason: To be forgiven, so we can be forgiven. He must be serious about this sanctification stuff, eh?

When I think about the amount of time that is needed in confession, I am definitely reminded that my sin is GREAT and my need for Jesus is a desperate one. The sermon over the weekend is continually on my mind. Through confession I’ve been “remembering” (as Paul calls the Ephesians to in 2:11,12) my desperate state. But as he goes on to say in verse 13 “but now in Christ Jesus you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” BUT NOW, though a sinner full of bitter, prideful thoughts, I have a hope in Jesus Christ to cleanse me from all unrighteousness. Yes, my sin is great but my Jesus is BIGGER.

Thank GOD for CONFESSION. Thank GOD for the BLOOD OF CHRIST.

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Psalm 51:1