My new salutation

I have always tried to pray with my children. They try to pray with me as well. Recently I have been bugged by their prayers, everything was “God give us a good day”; “God give us a good night sleep”; “Bless this food to our bodies”; “Help aunt so and so feel better”; “Help me not hit my sister”; “Thanks for Disney today”.

These things are fine, right? I guess what bothers me is that they say the same thing every time. I want them to have a vibrant relationship with God, where they connect to the creator of the universe, right? The real problem lies in the fact that this is what I pray with them. I am not taking time to have a real conversation with God in front of them. I am whooshing them off to bed with “give us a good night sleep”. Let’s be honest though, I am not going to have an emotional, soul baring conversation with God before putting my children to sleep. I don’t want to scare them. (daddy don’t cry).

So this got me thinking about what I am really doing when I pray with my children?
After some thought, it hit me. What do I need, what does my wife need, what do you need the most? To understand that God’s love is not contingent on your behavior, level of taikwondo, or relationship status on-line. At the end of every day I want to know that God loves me.

This is what my kids need. “God I ask that you would let Halie, Grace, and Lowery know how much you love them.” I believe that life really gets good when we come to believe that God loves us, I also like hearing my children pray God help so and so know that you love them.

I like this so much, I am thinking about using it as my clever, personal sign off.

May you know God’s love for you today,
Adam

(what do you think?)