I was praying with Jonah (our two year old) tonight and he taught me a valuable lesson on prayer. I was thanking God for everything from his mommy to his friends and then he spontaneously picked up right in the middle of it all,
“Sanks you God for me-me…sanks you God for my play ground…sanks you God for Jennifer…sanks you God for mommy.” Then I said, “In Jesus’ name…” and he finished with his “Ament.”
It really touched me. It touched me that his prayer was so pure and simple and perfect and yet from a human/worldly perspective he messed up the words and didn’t get it out right. He didn’t say amen right or thank you right and all of that but from his daddy’s perspective it was a perfect prayer because it came out of genuine and spontaneous thankfulness. It reminded me of Romans 8:26-27 where Paul teaches us that God works through our prayerful groanings to make something good come out of it all. We stutter and stammer and gibber and gabber. Maybe we think it all came out right but it didn’t or maybe we were so floored emotionally that we had no words but God knew what needed to be said.
While my prayers may come out sounding really nice and neat they aren’t nearly as pure and well intended as Jonah’s. He has a lot more to teach me when it comes to prayer and I can’t wait to find out what Jonah still wants to teach me on that subject!
