Category Archives: Early Childhood

What Makes a Prayer a Prayer?

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The other day, Paul, who is obsessed with the ABCs and sings the “ABC Song” a dozen times a day, said he’d say the prayer for lunch.

“This is the new prayer, Mommy.” And then, in the melody of the ABCs, he continued, “ABCDEFG, Thank you, God, for everything.”

“That’s not reverent, dear.” I responded. “We don’t joke about prayers. That sounds like the ABC song to me.”

“But that’s my prayer,” he insisted, frowning when I asked him again to say a proper prayer.

Today, when I dropped him off at preschool, I was telling his teacher about the ABC Book he made, and how he just loves the ABCs.

“Oh, we have a new snack prayer they just love,” she said. Then she sang the song I’d heard from Paul, except at the end it said, “Thank you, God, for feeding me.”

“Oh, I get it now!” I responded, “Paul had told me that but I hadn’t believed it was a prayer.”

“Oh, well, it has the ‘Thank you, God’ so it is the snack prayer,” she responded.

And since then, I’ve been pondering prayer. Does really saying “Thank you, God” make something a prayer? To me, a casual “Thank God” sounds like taking his name in vain. People say that all the time, and how often are they sincerely thanking him?

That said, everyone prays differently, and I certainly don’t believe God ignores sincere prayers. The Lutheran service that my son sang at during the fall was a “contemporary” service, with a rock band. Yet, I still felt the spirit as I listened to the pastor talking about how we can all be more loving to each other. Just because something is done with a different degree of reverence does not mean there is no spirit or sincerity.

But to my sensibilities, it is irreverent. In my home, I don’t want my son praying by singing an ABC Song prayer that sounds like it’s using God’s name in vain. I want him to bow his head, close his eyes, and pour out his own words of thanks to his Heavenly Father, speaking to him as the son of God that he is. I don’t want my son sitting at the piano, making up a melody for a song with the only lyrics being “God, God, God.” (He wanted to sing that for Family Home Evening this week.) To me, that is irreverent. I’d rather he sing of his relationship with his Heavenly Father through primary songs.

I just signed him up for his second year of preschool at the Lutheran preschool he’s been going to. Now I’m wondering if he’s just going to be confused. He’s already learned the distinction that, “At home I pray to Heavenly Father, but at preschool I pray to Jesus.”

Is learning reverence for our Heavenly Father, especially during prayer, something I should worry about? I do want him to learn the gospel of Jesus Christ correctly, and maybe the Lutheran influence will only confuse him.

Things Paul Says

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I realize I have not discussed or posted pictures of Thanksgiving in Utah with Daddy’s family, Christmas with Mommy’s family, or any of the many happenings in between. Paul has grown up a lot since last time I posted.

Nonetheless, here is a simple “Things Paul Says” post to get something up at least. He’s always surprising me with cute things he says.

“I found a pay-o-click!”

A paperclip, of course.

“I want purple-berry yoghurt.”

I agree, blueberry yoghurt looks more purple than blue. Smart thinking, Paul!

“Please bless the people that don’t have things to get things.”

We had a family home evening about tithing and fast offerings on Sunday night. He said this in Monday morning’s breakfast prayer. He apparently heard me! And remembered it overnight!

“Mommy’s bum is sticking out!”

He happened to walk in on me when I was changing my clothes. My back was to the door (thankfully), and well, he thought it was very funny.

“Don’t let it bite me!”

I was safety pinning his pants so they wouldn’t fall down. Very clever boy. I assured him the safety pin wouldn’t “bite.”

Cute Things From Paul

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Underwear

Paul’s fully toilet trained and surprises me with his ability to get dressed all by himself. But. For some reason, the creators of toddler underwear decided to put Elmo’s (and Thomas’ and James’) face on the back of the underpants. Paul sometimes insists on wearing his underpants backwards so he can see Elmo (or Thomas or James).

Time

Paul loves clocks. Last week, I noticed that whenever I said, “ten minutes” or “what time is it?” Paul would look at his (naked) wrist and say “no, 12 minutes!” or  “it’s 1-0-2-3” or “it’s 5-8-9-7”. He likes to tell time and know the time. Since neither Mom nor Dad wear watches, I think he learned that people wear clocks on their wrists from his preschool teachers, both of whom wear watches.

Preschool

Paul loves preschool. When he was looking at his watch (see story above), I said, “Paul, did you learn that at preschool?” Ever since, everything he “learned at preschool.”

“How did you know how to put on your own shoes?”

“From preschool!”

“How did you learn to get the milk out of the fridge all by yourself?”

“I learned at preschool!”

“How did you get so good at putting that puzzle together?”

“At preschool!”

You name it, he learned it at preschool, even when I know he didn’t really.

McDonald’s

Since Ryan has been traveling the last few weeks, I’ve been trying to make our dinner times exciting so it won’t feel so lonely. One night, we were having Chicken Nuggets so I made Paul a menu to “order” from. I wrote a big golden arch on the front for our “McReid’s” restaurant. He saw the yellow M and said, “M is for french fries!”

We’ve only been there about twice in his lifetime (once when he was newborn in Australia) and we never watch television with commercials, so I was quite puzzled at this. I finally decided that a Halloween costume we saw (french fries in a red McDonald’s container) was memorable for him.

Christmas

There are Christmas decorations in the store and I’m working on a Christmas project. (Yes, it’s way too early, but there you go.) Each morning, Paul wakes up to ask if it is Christmas yet. This is going to be a long month.

Cheese

Paul says I should write about cheese. At preschool, they sometimes have cheese for snack. Paul leaves preschool saying, “yummy yummy cheese!” when I pick him up. Then we get home and I offer him a little sliver of cheese. “Yucky! I don’t like cheese.” So I asked him why he likes it at preschool and not at home:

“I like cheese at preschool only!”

Okay then.

Singing and Talking

Paul regularly likes singing songs as we drive in the car. But I started singing a primary song in the car the other day, and he was quite annoyed.

“No, Mommy! No singing in the car! Singing at home only! That’s the new rule.”

I asked him about singing at preschool, or singing at church, so he changed the rule.

“Number 1, home. Number 2, church, Number 3, preschool. That’s the only places you can sing. That’s the rule. Number 1, number 2, number 3. Three places.”

He also made a “no talking in the car rule” a little later. I think he was over tired and a bit cranky, though, so I don’t take it personally. He also started singing himself a little later, so apparently, it’s only a rule for me… And I find it funny that he sees it necessary to establish “rules.” Do I do that too often?

Right Now

I told Paul I was writing the cute things he says and does. He said I should write:

“Grandma. Grandpa. Great Grandma [we’ll see all three of them tomorrow]. I love them!”

Yes, Paul, those are very cute things to say!