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On this blog, you will find topics we are researching to include in our non-fiction book, Teaching Special Spirits. On the right hand side, there is a list of categories. If you click on a category, it will take you to the posts dealing with that topic.

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Tuesday, June 3, 2008

I Begin by Saying "Dear Heavenly Father"

Communicating with our Heavenly Father through prayer is such an important aspect of developing both our relationship with Him, as well as our testimonies of the Savior, that God lives, and of our divine heritage.

For this chapter, I am looking for tips on how you taught your children to pray, challenges you encountered, and humorous or uplifting stories about your children praying.

5 comments:

Jay and Megan said...

Danielle -- what a great idea for a blog. I just wanted to share a couple of JT prayer stories. For the longest time all he would say was "Heavenly Father, Thank you for the list." The only thing I can think of is that it was too hard to think of creative things to say so he just put it into a huge category called "the list". As his ability to communicate increased he became more specific - sometimes extremely specific. Late at night when he was about seven, he once had a terrible ear ache - I suggested we pray and said a prayer that he would be able to feel better and get back to sleep. He was very angry and said I "said it wrong". He then said, "Heavenly Father, Please bless the white blood cells to win the was in my ear. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen." He then rolled over and went to directly to sleep. Now that is direct!!

Finally, this story is much more personal, but once when Jayson was praying he stopped and gasped outloud. We asked what was wrong and he said he "heard Jesus talking in his heart." Dumbfounded my husband and I asked him "Well what did he say?" He acted suprised and responded "Jesus said -- I love you JT." From a child completely without guile or ability to deceie we were humbled that truly had ears to hear.


Best of luck ---
Megan

Danyelle Ferguson said...

Megan -

Thank you so much for your feedback and stories about prayer. I absolutely love the story about JT hearing Jesus in his heart. It made me all teary.

Funny story for you - Isaac also does something like, "the list". After scripture study, when it's his turn to pray he say, "Dear Heavenly Father - We read the Jesus Book. Thank you. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen."

Isn't that just hilarious? It always makes me smile. I totally know Heavenly Father knows all the things in Isaac's heart that he didn't put into the prayer. But I just love the smiles I get from his prayers!

danette said...

Megan - that is awesome!

I love listening to our boys pray. One time, Dominik said in his bedtime prayer, "Dear Heavenly Father, we all love Jesus, the whole world loves Jesus, we're all sad Jesus died, we want to be like Jesus... and sometimes we like church." Church is really overstimulating for them and he'd been complaining that morning about how much he didn't like church, and then on the way home he told me "sometimes I like church" so it must've been a good day in Primary :). I guess he wanted to let Heavenly Father know that too!

For a while they were ending their prayers with "Amen-a" and then they started saying "AM / PM" at the end of their prayers (I guess because AM sounds like amen).

Danyelle Ferguson said...

That's so cute! I love stories of little kids and how their misinterpretations. Be sure to write those down to remember for later!

Cami Checketts said...

What a fabulous blog. I love it!
Since my boys were little I've tried to pray in every situation - lost shoe, nightmare, grateful they got home from school safe, etc. You sometimes wonder what is rubbing off. Last night two of my sons came to my room in the a.m. hours and said, "Mommy pray for me I'm sick" and "Mommy pray for me I had a nightmare." It was wonderful.
Blessings to you,
Cami