We Cover All the Bases...

**On a side note, I spent tonight curled up on the couch with Emma and they boys watching Beezus and Ramona.  Great movie.  While I'll eventually have to send it back to Netflix, this will definitely be a movie I'll soon purchase to watch again and again.

Why is it that when we bless our food and are amongst our family or friends, Emma feels the need to say 123 blessings?  Don't get me wrong, I often giggle to myself each time she initiates it.  When we're at my parents' house, we all know that we must say every one, and we are all very used to it.... our 'Line Up' of prayers is as follows: (but isn't limited to...)

• God is great; God is good; let us thank Him for our food, Amen. (this is the one we say before meals at home)
• Bless us our Lord, for these Thy gifts, which we are about to receive, from Thy bounty, through Christ our Lord, Amen.
• Come Lord Jesus, be our guest; let this food to us be blessed, Amen.
• Rub-a-dub-dub, thanks for the grub.  Yay God!
• Over the teeth; through the gums; look out stomach; here it comes!

Emma is sure to make sure no one feels left out or slighted.  While most times it's no big deal to let her make sure she's politically correct, including all religious prayers before meals, I wouldn't be being truthful if I said that sometimes I didn't just want to yell, "Hurry up!"  I sometimes feel the same way when I lay with her at night before bed.  I sometimes feel it's a continual how-long-can-I-put-off-my-bedtime scheme.

Last night, I asked Emma to fold her hands, and I braced myself for a 20 minute session.  With no other prompting, she proceeded to say her nightly line-up of prayers, Now I Lay Me...; I See the Moon...; Lord's Prayer...; Angel of God...; and she even has me say a prayer from when I was younger that Nana told her about, but she makes me say it.... the Hail Mary.  After completing these, she God-blessed each friend, teacher, and family member she has ever had (including her cat and dog cousins) and still had enough sense to ask, "God help me with making good choices tomorrow, make me be nice to my brother, and thanks for Your Son, because He takes away all the bad things I do." 

Tonight after the regular line-up, she said she was thankful for the world, and glad that we get to live here for a little bit before coming up the sky into heaven.  She said she thought it was cool that God uses different colors to 'paint' us, even our eyes are different and special.  She said she was happy that God 'painted' her into her family, and not a different family.  "'...'Cuz if that happened, Kaiser wouldn't be my brother." She also wondered if we get to eat in heaven.  I told her I wasn't sure, since I'd never been there.  She said, "We'll have to wait....then ask Gramma Kaiser."

Well, tonight when I say my prayers, I'm going to be sure to thank God for blessing me with a daughter who is able to teach me, even when I least expect it (or when I am really annoyed thinking she's giving me her best bedtime put-off scheme).  I will also be sure that I don't roll my eyes when listening to her nightly line-up....because she'll always surprise me, and make me feel good when she's finished.


Don't forget to say your prayers tonight! What do you thank God for?  What do you ask for help with?  Do you think we get to eat in heaven?  :)