Prayer

Every night with Maggie we read one book plus a Bible story, say prayers, and kiss goodnight. This is a much streamlined version compared with our old, pre-Finn routine of two books, a Bible story, several songs, long prayers, going through the list of questions my wonderful-but-slightly-OCD daughter had to have answered before she could sleep, etc. Anyway, we used to just pray but about a year ago we started asking Maggie if she wanted to pray and so we've had lots of conversations about what prayer is, how we should pray, and so on. (It's funny how as parents you're asked questions as if you're an expert on the subject. It makes me wish I could remember all the things I asked my parents as if THEY were experts on the subject.)
Anyway, we've lately been talking a lot with Maggie about asking God questions when you pray and she has taken the practice up with gusto. The other night was a particularly awesome night for her prayers and so as soon as I walked out of her room for the night I HAD to write down her questions.
Here's a transcript of her prayer that night.
Maggie: Dear God, thank you for this day and thank you for my friends and everything I love and everyone I love and please let me have a good day tomorrow. Now, Dad said I could ask you questions so here they are. God, why did Elle die? God, why do Hello Kitty's (her stuffed animal) undies always fall down around her legs? God, why did you wait so long to let me sleep in my undies?

I just love the variety of questions she asked. I mean, she has "why did my sister die?" right up there with wetting the bed and stuffed animals.

The tricky part is that soon I'm sure she'll ask about how God answers her questions and I'm not sure I'll have a good answer for her. That's a field in which I am not an expert.

Here's my good pray-er and her sweet sister: