praying is tricky

it really is. figuring it all out can be a challenge. but jack is really starting to get the hang of it. here's a couple examples:

he's really good at saying a memorized prayer, and most of the time, it's not really time appropriate, ie "bless daddy to drive home safely" and shawn is sitting across from him at the dinner table. but he says it because at some point in the last 6 months, he was prompted to. so his prayer has become a memorized conglomerate of said prompted moments. a couple of nights ago, when he volunteered to say family prayer, we encouraged him to think of 2 new things to pray to Heavenly Father about (thinking they would be tacked on to the list of memorized petitions).

dear Heavenly Father,
please bless jack that he won't be afraid,
please bless sam that he won't be afraid.
in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

2 things, done.

after further encouragement to think about what he is praying for this spilled out at the dinner table last night:

dear Heavenly Father,
thank you for this day.
thank you for this food, please bless it to make us healthy and happy.
please bless nephi that he will build a ship.
and please bless mary and Jesus that they will make it to egypt.
in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

brilliant. pray for things that have already happened so then you know prayer works.

absolutely scrumptious.