Early Morning Thoughts

It's risky trying to write at this time in the morning, but for some reason the boys are still sleeping (I love these late sunrises), so here I am.

I've been thinking about the Lord's Prayer a lot the last few days since it's our Sunday School lesson this week. That's the funny thing about teaching instead of just going to Sunday School--I'm actually putting in the time. Anyway, it so happened that another book I was reading (Children and the Christian Faith) was also talking about the Lord's Prayer, so it's been on my radar constantly. One of the things that I've been challenged about is to pray the attitudes of the Lord's Prayer instead of just the words. For instance, when we start with the Our Father, we should be in thanksgiving that we are His children, that He is the one in Heaven, and that He is truly a loving and sovereign Father. That sort of thing. My favourite part now is "Give us this day our daily bread" which, admittedly, used to be the part I thought was unnecessary for me since I have always had the food that I need. I learned this week that I am not just praying for physical bread, but also spiritual. I am praying to be fed by the Bread of Life, Christ, so I can pray for the things that will feed my spiritual hunger (patience, strength, a sense of humour) as well as my physical hunger.

I'm sharing this with you because it has been such an encouragement to me, but also because it's good to get my thoughts down. Yesterday I received some news that has left me grieving, so when Tiny woke me up at midnight needing medicine I had trouble getting back to sleep. My mind could not stop, and my heart was in a state of disarray. I woke the Man up, and he encouraged me before falling back to sleep himself, and then I found myself back at the Lord's Prayer, using it to bring my heart before Christ. And before I knew it, I was asleep again.

This morning I read a quotation in my Bible study that I found incredibly beautiful and encouraging. I'd like to end with it. It's from William Hendriksen's More Than Conquerors: "Peace, the reflection of the smile of God in the heart of the believer who has been reconciled to God through Jesus Christ, is the result of grace." I am so grateful for God's grace in reminding me of a lesson learned, in providing the "bread" that I need for the day, and in comforting my heart that it's hard to not reflect God's smile today.

And now my Thomas pajama wearing, toy-horse riding two year old is telling me that he "sneaked into the closet and got a Big Bird diaper", so I should probably go. Plus Tiny is mad he got left in the crib all by himself. It's a hard life...