Blessed Mario Kart

I invited Jack to give the family prayer tonight and as usual he refused. Well I have learned that it takes a little persistence and a little encouragement to get him to say the prayer. I used to give up pretty easy but now I find that if I ask him twice and give him the old "you can do it buddy" he usually responds. I remember well the first time that strategy worked for me. Jack simply said a prayer with all the correct elements and without any assistance. It was awesome. Mind you, he had given prayers previously but always with assistance then he just refused to do it. It had been a couple of years of trying before he finally did it. Now we coach on reverence and a little on content now and again.

Back to tonight's prayer. Jack started in and immediately thanked the Lord for Mario Kart. He then went on to pray for help when facing Bowzer on DK Mountain because he throws snowballs and you need to hit him with a turtle shell when he does that. With that he closed the prayer. I told him what a great prayer it was and asked him to pray again and to remember the thank the Lord for the blessings we received today and to pray that we can sleep well and be healthy. Without any arguing he said he would start a new prayer and so he did. This time he gave the same prayer as before with the addition of three things: thanks for the blessings we received today, help us to sleep well and to be strong.

After he finished he hurried over to where I was kneeling and asked if I heard what he was talking about. I said I had. He then went on to explain it all to me again. It was fun to see his excitement and to simply watch him. This little boy with his challenges never ceases to amaze me. We had read a book earlier tonight called The Little Bear Treasury. We read the middle series of stories about Little Bear finding a friend. Her name was Emily and she had a little doll named Lucy. After reading we were out in the garage and I was doing to painting on some shelves. Jack stood there with me and told me all about his friend Lucy and how wonderful she was. He also told me about his other friend Emily. He carried on with his imaginary friends playing in the garage and having fun. The funny thing is, he doesn't miss a detail with them. He has a very quick mind and a very sharp mind. He also has a very honest heart. I am grateful for the things he teaches me and grateful for my two other amazing kids as well.