The Little Seminary

Tonight, Joseph asked if he could pray as we were putting the boys to bed. He asked us what we wanted to pray for. He said, “I want to put them in a sentence like you do, Daddy.” After he did so, I told him, “Wow! You just did a pastoral prayer! That’s awesome, Joe!”

He likes to jump off John’s bed into my arms and I catch and in one motion swing him across the room onto his bed. He asked as he was going through the air and landing on the bed, “I can be a pastor like you?”

It’s interesting what the boys see. John is interested in preaching. Joe is interested in praying. About a week ago he asked me how I put all the prayer concerns into a sentence. Somewhere in all this, he resonates with prayer. I remember a time in Louisville, taking John and Joe to school. Something came up about prayer, and Joe said he did not know how to pray, because he was a baby. On more than one occasion, John has lamented not knowing how to pray. But praise God, we just try to teach them to talk. No special words.

Jessica tells a story how she learned to pray when she was about six, learning/knowing/believing that God was always a prayer away, right there, available for her no matter how hard things got in life. The boys hear her child-like prayers and know they can say whatever.