Josiah has been, for some time now, quite resistant to prayer. He neither wished to pray for others or be prayed for. I understand to some degree why it is hard for him to be prayed for. In our church you never know how someone will react durring prayer time. It can get rather loud and my ds is a bit put off by all the noise (noise in general). And in our home... dh tends to pray longer then the attention span of a 6yo can handle.

With his natural bending toward perfectionism he has a hard time praying for others. "What if I don't pray the right words" he has often said. We tried using a more formal prayer method such as "The Lord's Prayer" to help him and besides meal prayers it simply didn't work.

Tonight the boys were not ready to go to bed at their usual bed time. I let them sleep in today. They were finished with their bedtime thing and were just about to head off to bed when ds decided that he wanted to read the Bible. So I set the timer for 15 min. and dh asked him to read aloud. He read out of Eph. and had Micah to put on the armor of God. It was amazing as my ds fluently read from his Bible and his brother recited along most of the words. 

But what amazed me most was when he came to the end of the passage and said... "Now it's time to pray with all prayers. Let's pray now." So he prayed first for me...

Dear God,

Help mommy to have a good day. Help her not to have bad days and help her to bless you. Help mommy to remember to fight against all those princeapalities. Amen

Then he went on to dh...

Dear God,

Help daddy to do the things that are good for men to do. Help him to do the right thing. Help daddy to be a good husband to mommy and a good daddy to us. Thanks God for such a great daddy. Amen

Then he prayed for his brothers is simular fasion. It just amazes me how right on he was in his simple prayer. It was what each of us needed. Simple but profound... and from my reluctant prayer no less. Reluctant No More!!! God is SO good.

Just after he prayed for us all he said, "I think this means I'm growing up a little. I might be ready for turning 7 pretty soon."   I'm not. April will be here soon enough. I surely don't want to rush it.

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Posted by servingtheKingofkings

Your son is such a sweetie! I love to hear my children pray. Simple, sincere, and full of faith!!! (sometimes funny, too) :) I also have a Josiah. Mine is 7. Your Josiah sounds very similar to mine. Mine is also not comfortable praying out loud. He also doesn't like noises. He does pray quietly by himself and pray out loud once in a blue moon :).

P.S. I'll keep you and your husband in my prayers. God is in control. May the Lord give you peace, strength, and wisdom during this difficult time.

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Posted by smlltwnmmmy

This is so special! You must be so proud of your little "man". My ds still cringes at the thought of having to pray out loud. I hope that with consistency and some gentleness in that area, he will open up some day. I just love that your ds thought of each one of you and prayed for you so perfectly! What a wonderful moment! :0) -Brandi

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Posted by javajayne

I love it when my kids pray! I love that he said that he must be getting bigger. Of course, that tugged at my mommy heart-strings. How very special for you to have this precious memory.

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