Last week at church we sat around with some other parents and talked about spiritual formation in our children. Basically how we’re teaching them about God. I felt kind of dumb because I didn’t think we were doing much. But then the next day in the bath tub Lexi wanted to pray for her friends and we had quite the extended prayer session that turned into a round of “Praise Ye the Lord (Alleluia).”

First Lexi kept asking me to pray for people. We prayed for all kinds of people. And we started repeating people (they got a double blessing I guess). Then I asked Lexi if she wanted to pray. She put her head down and folded her hands (which she must be learning in Sunday School) and prayed:

“Pray adopted baby amen.”

“Pray momma amen.”

“Dear God amen.”

Then we were singing “Praise Ye the Lord (Alleluia)” and I tried to tell Lexi what ‘alleluia’ means. First I said it was worship (I think it literally means ‘highest praise’ or ‘let us worship God’), but then I realized that probably means nothing to her. So I told her worship is kind of like giving God a hug. I’m no theologian, but the definition kind of works for me.

Then Lexi wanted to pray that God would give the adopted baby a hug. We’re starting to mix metaphors now, but I think that’s a good definition of prayer, too.