My Prayer Life Part 2

In my last post, I shared about my prayer life as it relates only to my personal and private time. There is another major part of my prayer life. It involves our daughter and began when she was very young.

I can remember praying before dinner and before bed at a very young age. The prayers I learned then, I still remember and use from time to time. One of those particular prayers was my family’s bedtime prayer: Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. Should I die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take. Amen. Without adding too much commentary about it, I now look at those words and get a bit creeped out by it. It is so grim, but at the same time it cuts to the chase. Every day, every moment is a gift from God and there are no guarantees on the length of life. But there is a guarantee that we are never alone. God goes with us and will never forsake us.

When our daughter was little, it was easy to use this prayer at her bedtime. And over time, she quickly memorized it. There was a stretch of years that we stopped praying at bed time. Perhaps 4-5 years ago, we started a new bedtime tradition that includes both a family check in and prayer. I got the idea from my youth directing years and from my cousin’s family. When I was a youth director, we began every small group time with “Highs and Lows”. Each person briefly shared what part of their day was the high light or the joyous moment, the one that stood out in glimmering lights. Then they shared their lowest point, the moment of their day that they struggled or found challenging. We then used what we shared in our closing prayers, being sure to give thanks for our highs and surrender our lows to our merciful and strong God. My cousin has 3 girls and when we spent a weekend with them, we participated in their bedtime ritual: time for inviduals to pray and then the together the Lord’s Prayer.

My husband and I decided to create our own ritual with an exchange of “Highs and Thanks” and then take turns leading our family’s prayer. The night’s of our daughter’s turn, it was so humbling to be led in prayer by a child. After our family prayer, we would pray together the Lord’s Prayer, using the version our daughter learned during Kids’ Worship at our church: Our Father, who is in heaven, holy is your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth like it is in heaven. Give us today what we need for today. And forgive us our sins as we forgive the people who sin against us. Save us temptation and deliver us from the evil one. For yours is the kingdom, the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. Since my husband and I learned different versions, we stumbled through this so many times. I still mess up the last line and it often elicits giggles. But perhas the part that I have come to love so much is how we transition from our family’s personal prayer to the Lord’s. Our daughter starts with “1”. I echo “2”. Then my husband launches us with a “3”. If my husband is out of town or working, my daughter and I togethr say “3” in our lowest, manliest voices possible.

Teaching our daughter to pray and maintaining a nightly discipline of prayer together has strengthened enriched our faith and during some sad and hard times drew us closer together as a family. I will admit our consistency has slipped as of late. Busy schedules and work keep me from being home during bedtime. But there is something beautiful that has grown from our tradition of family prayers. Our daughter prays by herself every night. She of course won’t share with us what and how she prays, but she fervently confesses it is part of daily bedtime routine. This is a spiritual discipline that will serve her for the rest of her life and will be a touchstone during our faith walk.

I have given our daughter a couple of devotionals and prayer journals, but unlike her mom, it just isn’t her style. When she wants some guidance, she usually goes stright to scripture. She is familiar with the psalms and uses them sometimes. However she is praying, she is committing time to be draw closer to her Creator and Father. The intimacy this builds is providing her a safe space to be herself and to listen to God’s voice as she faces her joys and fears.