Prayer At Your Service

Each night prior to our meal, we hold hands and say a short prayer about whatever needs praying. For the past several months, Ezra has been not only disinterested, but flat out mad when we do it; at times pointing to us and saying “no praying!” We persevere through the childish scolding and pray each night, extending an open hand in his direction passively hoping that one time he will want to join back in.

Last night was that night. We started our meal off in the same fashion that the past several months have come to be – including the prayer protests. But halfway through the meal, and completely unprompted and unprovoked, Ezra reached out each of his hands and told us that he would like to pray. Ahna and I looked at each other with a certain sense of happiness that it’s possible he might be loosing his distaste and falling on the side of wanting to pray again. Many months ago, when he was still excited/interested in the pre-meal prayer, he would even ask to do it in the middle of the meal at random times…we always obliged. So when he asked last night, I thought it to be no different that any of those times from before.

But this time was different. Before either Ahna or I could say anything outloud, Ezra says “Gracious God, thank you for Saba and Savta, Nana and Papa. Mommy and Daddy and Baby and Ezra. Amen.” Those last two were with a little prompting. WOW! It was stunning. For him to be not only interested in a prayer again, but to lead the prayer with his own words and thoughts was an amazing thing to watch. It was just one of those moments in parenting that makes everything okay. We were so proud of Ezra on so many levels – and it might have even brought a tear to one of our eyes, but I’m not going to spill who it was (hint: the person’s name rhymes with Ahna).