"I praying"

Every night we have the same routine...Landon takes a bath with Jason, i get him out of the bathtub and get him dressed, we brush his teeth, Landon and I lay on the couch and watch a couple episodes of Barney, I turn the tv off, we say our prayers, and I lay with him until he falls asleep. I'm sure most of you have heard the prayer we say; its the same prayer i said every night when i was a child...

Now I lay me down to sleep
I pray the Lord my soul he'll keep
If I should die before I wake
I pray the Lord my soul he'll take
Amen

Well last night was no different except in a huge way it was. Landon likes to talk, that's no secret, and he talks himself to sleep....heck he talks IN his sleep, but after we say our prayers at night he will close his eyes and start naming people he knows in the EXACT same order every night. "Momma, Daddy, Tandice, Jeff, Sophie, Isaac, Malachi, Angel, Lai Lai, Tammy, Ashley, Mary, Nana, Pappy, Yaya, Adah, Unk Shawn, Fishy, CoCo, Pop pop, Nana....and usually by then he is sound asleep. So last night we finished saying our prayers, he tossed and turned until he got comfortable, he closed his eyes, and he began....
"Momma, Daddy, Tandice, Jeff, Sophie, Isaac, Malachi, Angel, Lai Lai, Tammy.....I interrupted him and said "Baby, what are you doing?" he opened his eyes, looked at me and said "I praying".

This sweet little 2 year old boy prays for the people in his life every night. I know he is too young to understand the true meaning of prayer, but these are the people that he loves and that mean the world to him. Its unreal to me how much we can learn from children. I try to pray every night, but sometimes when life is going wrong, i forget to thank God. I heard this statement the other night "We praise God when good things happen, so we shouldn't forget to praise God when all the bad things happen." Even though Isaac gave Landon a black eye and Lai Lai bit him so hard it left teeth marks on him....he prayed for them.

Of course i cried and i layed there for what seemed like hours just staring at this wonderful child that God did bless us with. I did alot of thinking and i replayed the names inside my head that i have heard him say over and over every night. Eventually my tears turned into laughter...I realized that he prays for Sophie. Sophie is a cute, hyper, well behaved, attention seeking...dog, but to Landon she is a friend and a blessing that he obviously thanks God for!

Amen