asher's prayers

me: are you ready to say your prayers, asher?
asher: yep. *he squeezes his eyes closed* God, thank you for everything we do. thank you for my family and that i get to be with them. thank you that nate got to get a birthday present today. i love you. Christ. amen.

every night, after we read and talk about a Bible story, we ask asher to pray first before we say prayers with him. almost all of his prayers consist of those same first couple of sentences (which melts my mama heart), but when he thanked God that nate got to get a present, i almost lost it. i think i squeezed bryan's hand so hard that he lost circulation in two of his fingers until asher said amen.

you see, we took the boys to the store yesterday and let nate pick out a birthday present. he picked out a thomas the train set. when we got home, there was a lot of bickering and screeching from both boys over who got to play. we tried to explain to asher that it was nate's brand new birthday toy and he was reluctant to share just yet. we also tried to curb nate's selfish heart by encouraging taking turns. anyway,  it got so ugly up in here that we decided to abandon the new toy. instead, we grabbed some christmas cookies and chocolate milk, piled up in the parental bed, and watched a thomas christmas special on netflix. it was a much needed respite for the whole family.

when it came time for bible reading and prayers, i had all but forgotten about the confusion and delay (a reference for all you other parents who are thomas watchers) that the toy had caused. SO, when asher thanked God that his brother got to pick out a new toy, i was totally taken by surprise and probably would have cried if i hadn't been releasing my emotion by breaking bryan's fingers in my shocked-by-our-son's-thoughtfulness-but-resisting-the-tears vice grip.

p.s. when bryan or i finished praying we usually say, "in Christ's name we pray, amen." I've noticed that asher has started tagging "Christ" or "Christ's name" onto the end of his prayers now. sweet to know he's listening when we pray.