My Kids' Prayer

My kids usually sleep late, so when I was still on a night shift, I rarely get the opportunity to put them to sleep. And since I am now on the day shift, I now have the chance to tuck them to bed everynight. And everytime, what signals the bedtime is the prayer time.

I teach them to pray the "Jabez Prayer", following the long list of "thank you's"

We begin by thanking God for their milky and nappy...then "thank you, Jesus for mommy and daddy"...and then the list goes on...

We thank God for each other, then for all the people in the house. Most of the time, they are the ones who initiate thenames and I just repeat it after them for affirmation and acknowledgement.

Eventually, they have understood that they can add names and items on the list. Aside from thanking mama and papa (my parents who are in Manila) Borjie has learned to thank Jesus for Jollibee, for slides, for toys, for Narnia, for Tarzan, for Mickey Mouse and for swimming. After he met my sister and her bestfriend, he added Tita Dobz and Tita Gingging on the list. When he got a Baby Einstein book from Tita Mars, that hasbecome a priority. Zaira on the other handed added Dora, Barney and Baby Bop (Kuya helped translate them to me coz I couldn't make out her words at first) and after she got a Barbie from Tita Mars, she was added to her list. Then we thank God for keeping us safe and healthy

After the narration of the people and things to thank God for, then they would say, "Oh, Lord, that you would bless me indeed and enlarge my territory (and believe me, 2 year-old Borjie can say it in full), may your hands be upon me Lord and keep me away from evil. In Jesus name we pray..." and together they will say "Amen!".

I am amazed that as young as my children are, the have understood the concept of being grateful for the things they enjoy. I only taught them to begrateful for the basic things we are getting like milk, food, shelter and eventually, they started adding the things they enjoy doing or having and the list goes longer everyday.

I purposely taught the "thank you" part first because I want my children, above all, to acknowledge that all things come from God, and I want them to, more than anything else, have a grateful heart.