Praying with the boys

The boys woke me up this morning. They ran in and jumped on my bed. Will said to me, "I heard a noise and I opened my eyes. I said to Isaac, 'you have to pray to Heavenly Father and he will make you not scared.'" He told me he helped Isaac say his prayers. I asked what he said and he told me, "I told him to say, 'Heavenly Father please bless that I won't be scared.'" We talked for a little longer and then I said, "Ok, I need to say my prayers before we go have breakfast." Will asked if he could tell me what to say. I asked him what I should say and he said, "Dear Heavenly Father, please help me not be scared. Please bless that the baby won't pee on my bed. Bless that he will close his eyes and go to sleep today." It was interesting to hear what things he thought I needed to pray about.

Isaac comes into my room in the mornings and will usually get in bed with me for a few minutes. Yesterday I heard the boys talking to each other so I decided I better say my prayers before they came in. While I was praying Isaac came in. He said, "Mommy? You praying?" Then Will came in and he said, "Shh, Will. Mommy saying prayers."

It was really cute and I'm glad they are learning about prayer. I remember when I was a little girl and I was afraid of the dark. I used to say my prayers out loud and every night I would say, "Please help me not have a bad dream, please help me not have a bad dream," over and over. I was sure that the nights I didn't say it over and over that I had bad dreams and I was certain that Heavenly Father would help me not to have bad dreams if I just asked enough. One night as I was saying it over a thousand times, my brother walked by and started laughing. I was embarrassed and decided I wouldn't pray out loud anymore. But I still did it in my head every night.

Thinking back it seems silly that I believed I had to say it over a thousand times to be answered. But, I also think that it is amazing that at such a young age I had faith in prayer and I knew that I just had to pray and God would answer me. I wish I could say that my faith in prayer is always that strong now.

The single most important thing in my gaining a testimony about the need to pray every day was walking in on my dad while he was in his room praying. Mike and I started saying their prayers for them from the minute they came home from the hospital. I hope my boys see me pray their whole lives and I hope they learn for themselves how important prayer is.