The House of Prayer

I recently was overwhelmed with Audrey and Ayden the other day and I mumbled under my breathe, "Please God give me the strength to not lose my mind!"  I thought I had mumbled, but evidently not because this moment of weakness sparked huge interest to Audrey.  She has really been intrigued with what mom and dad do.  She wants to do everything we do, and I guess she was inspired by that small cry for help to God because she is a praying fool.  Now we are not a big prayer family.  I mean we talk about saying prayers, but we normally do this on our own time and quietly.  However Audrey has taken this to the extreme.

Audrey loves to say grace at dinner time, and now we say it at every meal, including snack. It is something she wants to do, so I try and support her.  Ayden even gets into it and wants to lead a prayer at dinner.  His goes something like this, "Blah, blah, blah, Aaaaaaaaaaa-MEN!"  He really only likes the Amen party, but he wants to be just like his sister so he gives it his best effort.

Now I am not sure if Audrey really understands what prayer is truly about and if she understands it is not really a way to demand for things to go your way, but currently this is the way she is doing this whole prayer thing.  Tyler and I have had to hide our faces due to some of the hysterical things she prays about.  I know her intentions are good and she is trying so hard, but good gravy this kid has some crazy prayer requests.

Since it is a Monday and it is typically hard to find humor, I wanted to share just a few of the prayers I overheard at our table this weekend by Audrey.

Dear God,
Please give me the strength to deal with my brother saying the word uh-oh.
Amen

Dear God,
Please give me the patience to help Ayden to not pull apart his peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
Amen

Dear God,
Please give the help to remember to stop sticking my hands in my mouth.
Amen

Dear God,
Please give me the strength to make my mom stop telling me what to do.
Amen

Dear God,
Please give me the strength to get my way, even though I do not want to listen.
Amen

Dear God,
Please let me be good so I can earn my special pen, coloring thing.
Amen

Dear God,
Please let Ayden listen to my directions when playing with the dinosaurs.
Amen

Now I am sure I am not recalling all of the prayers I heard, but her prayer request is definitely focused around what Audrey wants.  I think I am going to let her keep praying and address the bigger issue at a later time.  She is only 3 1/2 and lets face it, in her mind the world revolves around her!