Teaching Our Child To Pray

   2 weeks ago, BG and I decided to go ahead and start a children's bible devotions with Conner before bedtimes. It was hard at first because it wasn't like the regular jump-on-the-bed-giggle-times. It was more of getting into a deep talk about the story or a picture that we are focusing on. After about a week, Conner began to look forward to our devotion time. He knew which book we used. He was much calmer, focus and receptive to what we said about the bible stories. He started to recognized who Jesus is in the pictures. I knew that we have a long ways to go before he will understand who God is. He does not appear to us like we can see our dog or our car for example. Unless God chooses to appear to Conner's visible eyes, it will take a lot of explaining that He is always with us & loves us.

   After our every devotions, we close with a prayer. We thank God for a wonderful day, for family, toys...you get the idea. Well, at first I felt guilty for not follow-up with teaching him to pray beside at the dinner table. He signed "food" every time we prayed. Yes, he prayed for food during our prayer time even though there's no food. Now, I want a snack. haha! Yes, of course, we thank God for the yummy food we had eaten today. Now, he signs "thank you", "bed" (for goodnight sleep), "mama, dada, Mimi, papa" and his favorite "AMEN". Haha! It's so sweet to watch my son watching his daddy praying for us. He was so observant of how we pray and worship God. I really hope that this new ground will be something that he will want to walk on for the rest of his life.

   Oh one more thing, after our trip to Chattanooga, we decided that it's never too early for Conner to start his memory verses. Due to close friends being a great example, we wanted to follow because we saw the joy the kids had in telling their memory verses to us. So last Monday, Conner's first memory verse is "Lord, teach us to pray", Luke 11:1. He was able to sign the verse (with our help) to Mimi tonight, "Lord, teach me pray". He had a giggle & a shy smile, he twirled while signing "Lord". I don't know where he got that idea. It's still pretty cute! haha! What a sweet moment for him! That small memory thing is so important to him as a child (and as a spiritual child).
Thank you Lord for teaching our son to pray and to memorize your word!

found this picture of a painting. It made me think of my son. :)