I began to think and pray about what to write for the Lenten meditation shortly after I was given the topic. John and I discussed a direction that we thought the writing could take and agreed on an in-depth reflection of a favorite prayer. The next night, I opened my daily devotional, Encouraging Words for Mothers. The entry for January 6th started with Psalm 17:6 – “I call on you my God, for you will answer me, turn your ear to me and hear my prayer.” The devotion was about a mom who was in an emergency situation and her child reminded her to pray. Her daughter taught her that prayer should be instinctive, that God should be the first one on your speed dial. It was followed by a short prayer, “Lord, help me to pray without ceasing – especially where my children are concerned. Amen.” WOW! This spoke to me in so many ways. I don’t think I really knew how to pray until I became a mother. Since my first pregnancy, prayer was the only way that I could tackle the most important, uncharted territory of my life. Prayer continues to help me through the ups and downs of motherhood and life in general.
Two nights later, I sat down to read to Simon from his book, One Year Devotions for Preschoolers and the title for Jan. 8th was “God Will Listen.” The passage simply explained that God is always ready to listen to your prayers. The bible verse was: “Pray to me, and I will answer you.” (Jeremiah 33:3). Reading this, made me think about the Lenten meditation and how simplistic a message about prayer can be. Maybe taking the Lenten meditation down to the level of a child is what we need sometimes.
A few nights later, Penny’s Five Minute Bible Devotions for Children was titled “God’s Good Care.” It told the story from Exodus 16: 4-18 and 17: 1-7 of Moses leading God’s People. It ended by telling that God is always there to help you because he loves and cares for you. The ending prayer was, “Thank you, God, for loving and caring for me. Please help me remember to always talk to you when I am worried or afraid. Amen.” Again....I was led to focus on the simplistic message for children about prayer.
These books cover a wide variety of topics and I found the message of prayer in all three the week after given the Lenten meditation assignment. Maybe the in-depth reflection of a favorite prayer was not the route to take, but to focus on the basic ideas that God is always there to listen and that we should always talk to Him. It is important to teach our children this from a young age, so that prayer becomes instinctive in their lives.
Jessica Lenhart
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