Childlike prayers ...

Each night at dinner, I always ask the kids first if one of them would like to lead us in thanking God for the meal ... a few nights back, Sam (my second, who is 7) enthusiastically volunteered, so I gave him the honors ... and this is how it went ...

‘Thank you God that Daddy’s in heaven making new friends ... with other dead people ... and thank you that we’re not wild animals ... except for Gracie, of course ... and thank you for whoever made us this food, Amen!’

My heart softened with his thought of Daddy making friends in heaven ... a smile started to crinkle at the corners with the dead people comment and by the time he was finished, I could not contain the chuckle as my son basically just slammed me for carrying-in dinner ... AGAIN. As he finished, he looked at me with that smirk in his eyes (which is ALL Rindfuss!), a shrug of his shoulders, with hands raised upward and in true Sam fashion innocently asked, ‘What?’ I just shook my head trying to contain the full-fledge laugh that might be received as too much approval and just said, ‘That was very nice Sam ... I’m thankful we’re not wild animals, too.’

As the conversation turned to ‘if you WERE a wild animal, which one would you be?’, my mind wandered ... aside from the randomness, what a great prayer! How simple ... how pure of heart ... so full of thanksgiving ... truly perfect. Oh, how nice it would be to be so young ... to be completely abandoned to random thoughts and pure expressions from the heart ... not stopping first to think about the logic or the relevance of what we have to say, but to just say it with a pure heart, as the Lord brings it ... Oh, to be so young again ...

Earlier in the spring, I participated in a Bible Study on prayer ... It was very timely for me as I was just coming out of the chaos with David and I was struggling with many things in my Faith, especially relating to prayer ... I wasn’t sure if it was that I no longer believed in prayer, or if it was the power of prayer I questioned ... Or maybe it was if God heard our prayers? Was I questioning the right way of doing it, or was it that I just no longer 'felt like it'? At the same time of the study, our Pastor was doing a series on ‘The Big Picture’, and one week he ALSO taught on prayer (do you think God wanted me to get back to praying??) ... One thing in particular really jumped out as he taught that when we are walking with the Lord, our prayers, themselves, are God-given. How cool is that? Yet another example of how God not only goes before us, but asks for nothing more than what He has already provided. Haven’t you ever wondered ‘what should I pray’ or ‘how should I pray’ ... the fact that you are burdened to pray, is from God, and however we are feeling lead to pray, is from Him too ... We just need to let the randomness happen, disregard what we ‘think’ sounds good or relevant and abandon ourselves to the purity of the prayer itself, as it comes forth ... and that is how the Spirit is moved. So often we get all jumbled up thinking that it doesn’t make sense ... or perhaps not liking how we sound ... or maybe it’s what He’s saying to us that we don’t like?? If only we could just abandon ourselves to it, would we then see the Spirit move?

Thinking that I might be onto something with allowing randomness in our prayers (and in our Faith, as a whole) and seeing how good kids are at being random, my mind then wandered to the verses in Matthew where Jesus says ‘let the little children come to me’ (Matthew 19:14). You know, I always read that as if He was referring to actual children, the young in age ... that it was an illustration of how He has a special place in His heart for children and childrens ministry. While I do believe that is also true, I couldn’t help but wonder if He was also saying something else here ... I noticed a chapter earlier (Matthew 18:2-4) that He also mentioned children ... He says ‘I tell you the truth’ (how many know that whenever Jesus says ‘I tell you the truth’, we don’t want to miss what’s next?!!!) ... He says ‘I tell you the truth, unless you become like a little child, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Now, we know that ‘become like a little child’ can not refer to age because we can not change our age, so most likely He is referring to something else ... maybe He means young in attitude or young in emotion or in spiritually. Many have their definition of what ‘childlike faith’ means, whether it’s innocence, trusting or maybe even naïvity, but I believe God is saying it’s way more ... I believe it means ALL that a child can be ... it means a playful, random, creative, unconditional, easy-to-forgive and even flexible faith ... I believe Matthew 19:14 is a call out to ALL OF US to let the childlikeness in each of us to COME FORTH! Not only does He call it forth, but He also warns those who are uncomfortable with childishness ... He says, ‘do not hinder’ this coming forth as a child, but be ‘welcoming’ of it! That’s a Word for both of us who are feeling God calling the child out within us, but also for those of us who aren’t patient with other Christians who are just learning to walk, too ... ‘to welcome’ ... be ‘kind in greeting’, ‘generous in warmth’, and ‘receiving with acceptance’ ... for those who come forth as a child are ultimately humble (full of thanksgiving) and they are the greatest of those in the Kingdom! (Matthew 18:4)

Wow! Makes me WANT to be a child ... while kids can certainly drive us nuts from time-to-time (trust me I know, as I just vacationed with 13 of them!!), I’m beginning to think they are the ones who have it all figured out ... All of the sudden, ‘random’ sounds pretty organized to me ... ‘playful’ and ‘light-hearted’ sounds refreshing, not frustrating ... and maybe even a little ‘ornery’ from time-to-time has its place ... It seems like it all adds up to honesty in their emotions and transparency in their needs; afterall, how often do you see a child hold back their tears or their desire to be held? And while I can truly see how they can be mistaken for a wild animal, or two, it is in our ‘childlikeness’ where we ultimately find our complete dependency on our Father, who cares for even the least of these.

Go figure ... it turns out that the randomness in Sam’s prayer wasn't odd at all ... it was actually the most perfect part!

Oh, to be young again ...



[comment on this entry] [sign guestbook]