"Pray Please"

I admit I have a prayer Nazi living in my house. "You must fold your hands, close your eyes, bend your head, AND pray often". You better not leave a step out because the Prayer Nazi is watching!

After breakfast my dear daughter climbs the steps to her bedroom, reads her Bible, rocks her babies, and is often found with her hands folded, eyes, closed, and head bent. (And I kinda enjoy this 10 minutes!)

Mealtime - you gotcha we have the most blessed food in the state! Usually blessed countless times during a meal.

Randomly though out the day the babies of the house must STOP, fold their hands with help, and all the little ones pray.

Playing with friends - well, let's face it sometimes you just gotta use your bossiest tone of voice and demand that ALL pray NOW (we are working on asking not telling!).

Bedtime - James and I are often  reminded prayer happens with hands folded. Sometimes with a little eyebrow lift from the smallest family member (need to work on that one with her but at bedtime - just ummmmm, picking my battles!).

Middle of the night - well, can you really be annoyed with somebody who calls out to you REPEATEDLY to come pray? (And yes, actually when this little somebody calls to you multiple times to "PRAAAAAAAYYYYYY Please Maaaaaaaaa" said in their whiniest/tiredest voice EVER!)


Where did this prayer Nazi come from???

I have blamed Grandma for creating the "we must hold hands" to pray before meals. I can tell you it didn't come from me - greasy, sticky hands should really stay to themselves!

I blamed church for the fold your hands to pray and really what teacher does not want the roomful of toddlers to have their hands in a position to not be able to touch their friends!

I blamed myself for the middle of the night and bedtime prayer Nazi. Did I mention I am picking my battles - middle of the night and bedtime prayer bossiness aren't in the battle plan yet!


This weekend, when I had been followed around the house for a good 10 minutes by this persistent little girl who just wanted to "praaaaaaayyyyyyy pleeeeeaaaaasssssseeeeeee" - we won't mention how many times we had already prayed that morning. I gave up. We sat down and blessed the baby dolls food again, prayed for an extra dose of patience, AND prayed that nap time would come soon (God appreciates our honesty right?).

And then I realized, is it really so bad that Lydia is reminding me all day to pray? I don't remember what I was doing this weekend while being chased down to "pray please" but really in the grand scheme of things I am sure whatever the "chore" was that eventually it did get done. Maybe God's voice I have tuned out better than the whining voice that is chasing me down.

Is eating dinner in a timely fashion really so important? (When you pray every other bite meal times do take allot longer!)

I don't really think God cares about how we look when we pray but this is very important to the Prayer Nazi ;)

This week I am making more of an effort to "pray please" ;) And I will try to be thankful for this sweet little girl - no matter how many times we bless the plastic food for the plastic babies!