Thursday, August 18, 2005

First Prayer I learned

When Sherry, Dena, Lance and I were children, we kids always recited this prayer every night.  “Now I lay me down to sleep, If I should die before I wake, I pray the lord my soul to take.  Amen!”  For years I spoke the words to this prayer without stopping to consider what I was even saying, I was taught to memorize it, but I really didn’t know what I was praying for.  I can’t remember the exact day when I really understood what I was praying, but I remember really praying it that night and not just saying it, and I still say it every night in my head along with a lot of other things.  I also remember my little brother Lance asking my mom when he was little,  My mom would come to each of our rooms each night and say our prayers with us and tell us she loved us before we would go to sleep.  On this night he said “Mama”  what does Fieshadye mean?”  (If I should die) We still laugh about this till today. 

The same with that prayer of thanks we all said at the supper table.  “God is great, God is Good let us thank Him for our food, by his hands we are feed give us Lord our daily bread”.   He definitely is both.  Both of these were simple childhood prayers that celebrates his greatness.  A greatness beyond comprehension for me even as an adult.  But I still feel so near to HIM.  Thanks God that He uses His greatness not to destroy us but to save us, and he uses his goodness not as a reason to reject us but as a way to reach us.

 

I feel like a child again, singing “Yes Jesus love Me”, in Sunday School, or “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, sweetest name I know, fills my every longing, keeps me singing as I go.”

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

sweet memories!
~Julie

Anonymous said...

I enjoyed reading this personal devotional.  Thanks for sharing!  God is good indeed!