 |
| Hold, please. |
“Fold or hold?”
One night last month, Jack made his response to the question
very clear before it was even asked.
As Daddy filled water glasses and I transferred food from
stovetop pots to serving dishes, Nina and Luke fingered appetizers. Not Jack. He piped up with an eager noise and held his hands out intently. His smile was as wide as his arms were as
they reached to hold his sibling’s hands during a mealtime blessing.
At that moment, it struck me: The simple ritual of our pre-grace question had given our youngest
child a way to communicate his desire to pray. Even though Jack has mastered only a few
spoken words as of yet, that night he began asking the rest of us to join him
in prayer.
It seems that the Lord took the tool of “Fold or Hold”, that
I began using a few years ago at mealtime to offer Luke and Nina some choice an
ownership regarding grace, and morphed it into a way for our virtually
speech-less Jack to have a “voice” at mealtimes.
Wow.
The amazing ways He
magnifies our simple efforts never cease to amaze me.
If you have a regular opportunity to pray alongside young
children, whether it be at mealtimes or another time, I encourage you to try the Fold or Hold strategy. As you do so, who knows how He will transform
the experience.
I would like to thank readers who have patiently waited for over a month this series to begin again after my recent computer break down and would also like to Elaine, at Commotion from the Ocean of Life and Elisa, at Tercets, for linking up with the last Training Happy Hearts: A Call to Faith Formation for Young Children.
Training Happy Hearts:
A Call to Faith Formation for Young Children
You are invited link up anytime with posts -- old or new -- that share your ideas, wisdom, reflections, activities and practical tips and tales about training up young children so that they may have happy hearts, united with God. Henceforth, this link-up will be posted anew each Sunday, but will contain all linked ideas to date, creating, in effect, a library of ideas for sharing our faith with little ones. Enjoy browsing the links as well as adding new ones each week. Thank you and God bless!
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
(Cannot add links: Registration/trial expired)
1 comment:
Martianne,
How wonderful that Jack is able to express his desire for prayer without words!
Thank you for the invitation to link up; I have done so. FYI, the link you posted above to my blog is going to the other writer's blog instead.
Post a Comment