Each night right before we tuck the girls into bed, we all hold hands and go around in a circle and pray.  The girls have to take turns each night as to who gets to start it and who ends it. We hold hands and whoever starts the prayer will then squeeze the hand of the person they want to go next until it comes to the last person who will finish out the prayer with an “amen.” Sometimes the prayers are very short and John and/or I say a majority of it, while other nights, the girls thank God for everything from the sunshine that morning to the fan in their bedrooms at night. Some nights I laugh at the things they say and I can imagine God smiling too because let’s face it… kids are funny and brutally honest- even during their prayers. 

Over the course of the years the girls’ prayers have changed and evolved, but there is one thing that has stuck out to me for a while.  When I say my prayers, I thank God for things He has already given me and then ask Him for things that I want or need.  Bella Kate has followed suit. She thanks God and then asks God.  Carly on the other hand never asks God for anything.  She skips that part and goes right to the “thank you.”  So basically, rather than asking God to take the Coronavirus away, she thanks God for taking it away.  Rather than asking God to help someone feel better.  She thanks God for helping them feel better. Rather than asking God to let us go do something fun the next day, she thanks God for letting us go do something fun the next day.  If you’re not paying attention, you could totally miss it.   After all, she is only 5 and so you might think that she just doesn’t have the wording quite right. Though they essentially are asking of God the same thing, by thanking Him, she is demonstrating that she believes He is already at work doing what she has asked of Him. 

Now, you could argue that she is clueless and that she doesn’t even understand what she’s saying. I mean, like I said, she’s only 5. Yet when I tried this in my own prayer life, it has a COMPLETELY different feel to it.  Where normally there is anxiety in the asking, there is peace.  It’s like an acknowledgement that I already KNOW God is working on my behalf. Maybe this is what God meant when God told us to “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication WITH THANKSGIVING let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” I thought I understood that verse and often pray for this special peace for friends and family who are going through hard times, but it turns out maybe I needed my little girl to demonstrate it for me to truly understand that verse for myself. 

Maybe, just maybe this is another reason why God said that we are to become like little children. When we go before the Lord in prayer and ask Him for anything, we need to ask with BOLDNESS and believe that He is GOOD and is already working to answer that prayer before it is even uttered! Yes, we need to ask that HIS will be done, after all that is what we really want anyway, but maybe thanking God for the things we are asking God for is a great way to start building a life of faith and a life of peace.  After all, He knows the plans He has for us, plans for hope and a future, and I’m so very thankful for that!