Friday, June 26, 2009

When Kids Pray...

...they say the funniest things. Emma consistently prays the same things before meals and at bedtime every day. But every once in a while she'll change things up and throw in something new that makes us laugh. This week at breakfast, after thanking God for Mom, Dad and her food, she continued with the following remarks of gratitude:

1. "Thank you that my mommy had me and my little sister--in that order."
2. "Thank you that we found this house."
3. "Thank you for China and everything. Amen."

She was pretty specific about being thankful that she came before Ashlyn, which we thought was funny. And the part about the house, well, we're not sure about that. This is the same house we've lived in since she was born. And China, well, she prays that part every day. Not sure when that started, because it wasn't at our prompting or anything, but that's been in her prayers for months now. She says she really wants to go to China someday and tell people about God. I think China's kinda far, and wonder if she'd settle for something a bit closer, like Carlisle. :) People in Carlisle need God too.

Actually, I wouldn't be too surprised if she does something missions-oriented when she gets older. When we were planning for the short vacation we took to eastern IA a few weeks ago, I tried to involve her in the planning. I asked her if there was anything she'd really like to get to do on vacation, or if there was any place she'd really like to go to (like a swimming pool or a particular restaurant). But nope. I got China. So once we ruled out traveling to China, she said she just wanted to go somewhere where she could tell people about God. I tried to tell her we were just trying to plan a fun family vacation, and she kept asking if we could go on a mission trip. Once I convinced her we'd revisit the mission trip idea sometime in the future, she shared the one and only thing she really wanted to do on vacation, which was eat in the van. Hmmm... travel to China, or eat in the van... I'm glad we can make the simple trade offs right now. But what to do when she gets older?

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