Today, Tomorrow, or the Next Day

A certain little girl who shall remain nameless (not me or Miss Boo or Aunt Kenny, though) used to pray that God wouldn't let the communists come today, tomorrow, or the next day. That way, you see, if she missed a day, she'd be covered.

My reaction to this story until this morning was always along the lines of, "oh, how cute" with an undercurrent of "children think such funny things about prayer". Which meant, I suppose, that I assumed that a prayer like that didn't do any good in something as big as holding back the communists.

This morning, as the Steve Green "Hide 'Em in Your Heart" CD that Miss Boo likes warbled "Let the little children come, let the little children come, let the little children come to me/For of such is the kingdom of heaven" it occurred to me that it's surely very arrogant to think children's prayers don't do anything. Given that the Lord told us over and over again to make ourselves like little children, it would be a better to assume that their prayers have lessons for us adults.

How do we know, after all, that the little girl praying for the communists not to come today, tomorrow, or the next day didn't hold them back?

Granted, some childrens's prayers are just cute. Like two nights ago, when I asked Miss Boo what we should thank Jesus for that night. As usual, she responded:

"Mama, Daddy, and Brother." We have to move on beyond this, so I said:

"And what else?"

"Dogs." This is also standard.

"Thank you Jesus, for dogs. And what else?"

"Pat-pat." Our dog isn't included in the general category, you see.

"Thank you, Jesus, for Pat-pat. And what else?"

This is the part of the nightime prayers that gets interesting, because she chooses things evidently at random to be thankful for. The dog had bacon grease poured over his food that morning and had been odiferous all day. She thought for a moment, then said:

"Pat-pat's stinky butt!"

I had a hard time keeping a straight face as we solemnly thanked the Lord for Pat-pat's stinky butt.

Cheers,

Breanna