God is great. God is good.

Before my wife and I had our first child, we had the privilege of seeing many couples teaching their children how to pray. I had to say, the very endeavor itself is noble. What greater thing can be taught to children than to commune with their Heavenly Father? But I saw numerous techniques. Some parents insisted on their child folding their hands and bowing their heads. In fact, some were militant about the proper gesturing, while others were taught to mimic their parent's prayer word for word. Yet others were given a theology of prayer before praying which meant the food was terribly cold before we took our first bite! Now I wasn't trying to critique methods, rather I was infatuated for a time with each method, be it the strict discipline of posturing, the precise repetition of good theology, or the 30 minute sermonette on why we thank God for the things we have before we ask God for things. All of these were great and I was determined to do all of them when it came time to train my own child.

Until recently, however, I was still uncertain of one thing: At what age do you teach your child to pray? Is it when they can articulate the theological underpinnings of petitioning an omniscient, omnipotent, benevolent God? I doubt it. Is it when they can complete whole sentences? Maybe. I'm still thinking through that, but recently, when dining with some friends, they pointed out that as we prayed before our meal, without any prompting, our daughter Hannah, who's not quite two years old, politely bowed her head and when we finished, she echoed "A-maa." Keep in mind we've not given any formal instruction or reinforcement for this behavior. Now I certainly wouldn't go as far as to say that she's talking to Jesus, but by God's grace, she's already seeing something in her parents that is pointing her to Christ (even though she probably has no idea of what it is.) I thank God for that and pray that not only will she hear her mother and me speak to her about the things of God, but also, and perhaps more importantly, she will continually see the things of God in me.

"God is great. God is good. Let us thank him for the food. Amen."