Bedtime Prayers

Little Miss Sunshine and I settled into her bed to say her bedtime prayers when she asked me, “Prayer is how we can tell God what we want, right?” I cocked my head, unsure quite how to answer her question. “Yes, but it’s also a time to thank God for things and tell Him we love Him.” Satisfied with my answer she folded her little hands in front of her face and closed her eyes tightly. What followed were probably some of the sweetest words ever uttered.

“Dear God, I want you…to help us do good things. And take away our sin so we don’t do those things any more. I love you soooo much. Amen.”

She opened her eyes and looked at me for approval. “Do you think God heard that?”
“Oh, I’m sure He did. That was beautiful sweetie.”
“Did Jesus hear it too?”
“Yes, I’m sure He did too.”
And then she said, “I need to tell him one more thing.” She closed her eyes and folded her hands again and said, “Dear God, please help my brother to be good and not naughty and not to hit me in the nose with a stick.” At that point, I was sure I had missed something that had happened earlier in the day.

As I thought about her question and the following bedtime prayers, I realized once again that I was seeing things through adult eyes. I had feared she would begin to view prayer as a time to just tell God what we want and expect Him to answer – like asking for a pink bike or a pony. But her prayers are so much closer to God’s heart of love than mine often are. I’m the one continually begging God for what I want, like to please, please, please, please sell our house in Florida so we can settle down into our own place and get into a routine and make things easier for everyone (mainly me). Please, please, please sooooon! But my 4-year old simply and unselfishly asks for help to be good and not to sin and lets Him know she loves Him sooooo much. It’s no wonder that Jesus rebuked the disciples and told them to let the children come to Him because the kingdom of heaven is made up of people like these children. My daughter is concerned with one thing when it comes to God – she loves Him, and He loves her. I think that was what pleased Jesus so much about the children crowding to see Him: they were secure in His love for them and they loved him dearly in return and just wanted to be close to Him.

I think I should switch things up tonight and ask God if I could have faith like Little Miss Sunshine.

Filed under Little Miss Sunshine, faith in action | Comments (6)

What?? A blog post????

Wonders never cease!

So, I’m thinking about blogging again, especially, since all our Florida friends said that they would be checking here for updates! Ay. What a few weeks it has been. It seems like it has been sooo much longer, but when I look at a calendar, it reminds me that we only put our home up for sale in Florida 2 months ago. 2 months. Feels like 2 lifetimes.

Here’s a quick update for now and I’ll blog more thoughtfully on a few points later.

We had a smooth drive north. On their way down to Florida my in-laws’ van had been overheating. While it was empty and pulling an empty trailer. The night before we headed north there were five guys huddled around the open hood of the van. If you didn’t look closely you might have assumed they were laying hands on the engine and praying for it, which might not have been a bad idea. Maybe they did that too, I wouldn’t put it past that group (My dad, My father-in-law, The Narrator and his 2 best FL buddies). No, it just took five of them to empty some bottle of gook into the engine (or some other part under the hood) that apparently sealed up the problem because the van ran a great pace all the way back to Michigan and never overheated once. As a side note, right after pouring the gook in the engine (don’t you love my technical jargon?) they decided to give our neighbors one last show of weirdness before we moved. The Narrator pulled out his fire balls….seriously, juggling balls you light on fire, I’m NOT making a joke! And we all took a turn juggling them. Well, not all of us, I guess. The Narrator was the only one who really juggled them. By the time I tried they were too hot for my delicate hands to handle. My Dad gave it a whirl too, and the kids just thought it was awesome.

We were greeted in Michigan by dear family and friends….and snow. It was drizzling while we were unloading the trailer that Sunday, and I very distinctly felt the rain get crunchy. If you’ve never felt cold, crunchy rain you have no idea what you’re not missing. That day it wasn’t anything that stuck to the ground, just made the cold cling to your bones. However, God answered Little Miss Sunshine’s prayer not long after that with FIVE inches of snow. In April. Seriously, I think God brought those five inches of wet snow just for her. The city where The Narrator is working didn’t have any snow. We had FIVE. By evening the snow was all gone, but not before the kids crammed in a whole winter’s worth of fun into a few hours. From a giant snowman, to a snowball fight, sledding around the yard, and snow angels, it was a day straight from Heaven for them.

We’re happy to be here, although we miss all our friends in Florida and can’t wait to get into our own home up here so we can set up house and begin to host our friends and family again. We continue to be patient as we pray for the sale of our home, and God continues to give us reminders of why this is the right thing for us for right now. We were able to go visit The Narrator’s sister and her family out west Easter weekend. We rode with the in-laws and met up with them in Omaha, Nebraska. This was the first time we had been able to meet our precious twin girl nieces. Little Miss and T-Rex fell in love with “the babies.” We spent a day at the Omaha zoo (which is AMAZING!). The day after we arrived home, T-Rex woke up and the first thing he asked was “Can we see the babies today??” Aww. That trip wouldn’t have been possible from Florida, we were just too far away. We’re looking forward to more visits with (and from) our family in Nebraska and Ohio.

Unfortunately, while we were in Nebraska, I came down with strep throat AGAIN. I had it about 6 weeks ago before we moved. Monday after we got home, I dragged myself to the walk-in clinic and waited with everyone else who had gotten sick over the Easter holiday. Finally they saw me and confirmed what I already knew and just needed a prescription for. Little Miss and T-Rex were soooo tired from the trip, that they BOTH fell asleep in the shopping cart while I got my prescription at the grocery store. Needless to say, I was grumpy. I was grumpy that I had strep again, grumpy that I had to go to the doctor, grumpy that I didn’t get to hold my nieces very much because I was sick. Grumpy, grumpy, grumpy. And that was when I was reminded how incredibly friendly this part of Michigan is. The staff at the very busy walk-in clinic was genuinely nice, almost overly nice – from the front desk to the nurse to the doctor, even the pharmacy staff at the grocery store. Everyone was chatty and open and friendly and so sorry that I was sick and so nice to my kids, that it took me by surprise. It’s not that Florida isn’t friendly, it’s just that the general public isn’t as….friendly. I’ve been to the doctor’s office or the grocery store and never had anyone say a word to me. I’ve checked out without ever exchanging a single word with the cashier (some days it’s just too hard to try to initiate conversation while making sure I don’t get overcharged for something and that my kids don’t grab and start eating candy off the checkout racks!!).

These friendly encounters when I was feeling so lousy and unfriendly reminded me why we came back. There’s something unique about this part of the country and we’d like to raise our kids here.

Speaking of kids….we’ll be spending Saturday with some cows and ponies and random other animals. Life in the country can be fun!!

Filed under LOL, Little Miss Sunshine, moving | Comments (4)