Thank you for the sugar slushy today,
thank you for the sugar cereal I got to have,
thank you that we could go swimming,
and I am thankful that the Lord watches me,
in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
His prayers are short, very thoughtful, and he says them fairly slowly, so I get to feel each part of his prayer. They are always very, very sweet. These nightly prayers bring me back to the simple gratitude I so often forget to feel, as I'm busily trying to tie up the loose ends of the day and get the boys ready for bed and tucked away. I feel run ragged-to use a phrase my mom used growing up--sometimes I don't let myself enjoy it as I should.
Caleb and Will knocked at the door 2 hours after I put Brooks and Jameson in bed, after some swimming and smores roasting at Jon and Jenny Norton's home. As we hit the floor for prayers before they toppled into bed, Caleb began to complain because he didn't want to say the prayer and really wanted to throw his exhausted body into his bed (swimming 3 times in one day can do that to a boy) and I had to remind him of some of his blessings today (sometimes laying it on thick can work so nicely).
After he prayed and he and Will climbed into bed, just before I turned out the light, I reminded them about how their Great Grandma Rose used to go to sleep counting her blessings. Caleb had to fix his reading light on his wall, and as I gave him time to fix it before I hit the lights, I glanced over at Will--whose back was towards me, but I could see a hand full of out-stretched fingers and then more going up one by one on his other hand. It took me back a little. He had listened to my thought about his great grandma and his little seven-year-old fingers were helping him count all of his blessings. Oh the sweetness of little ones! It is moments like these that I remember just how innocent and precious they are at this stage of life.
As the philosopher Goerte so simply expressed, Nothing is more important than this day. For me, after busy days with my boys, nothing feels sweeter than to have an experience at night, confirming to me that the work and energy I put into teaching my boys is realized--sometimes just for a moment. I need to remember to bask in the sweetness of now. Nothing I did yesterday needs to be rehashed again, or the list for tomorrow. It's when I feel the Lord's love through these tender moments, that my life is joyful. Count your blessings, name them one by one: Matthew (on a plane bound for the Phillipines), Caleb, William, Jameson and Brooks. What a life I have.
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