"Dear God, Amen."

"If you lose your way just stop and pray." My oldest reads over and over as she sits on her bed. I popped my head into her room with her fussy sister in hand. "whatcha readin`?" I ask, even though I already knew the answer. "prayer book" she replies matter-of-factly. "Ohhh, do you think you could read some to Olivia and me? Olivia`s a little sad." She tolerates me setting her baby sister down and continues her reading, "If you lose your way, just stop and pray." She repeats the phrase over and over as her finger rolls over the poem on the page. When she gets to the end of the page she looks up and says "Time to pray" as the next page indicates by the prayer line and she folds her hands over, both Olivia and I follow suit. "Dear God, Amen." Then she turns the page and repeats the process with the next page of her book. Olivia settles down as she enjoys listening to her sister. I take advantage of the serene moment to enjoy these two little girls and smile at the view that is making my heart leap.

There are so many moments like the one above I'm so afraid I'm going to forget. In these busy days when I'm running here, doing this, and making that I feel like their sweet little childhoods are just rolling by. Why does it seem like time flies these days. I mean it's already May for goodness sake. In one week Lauren is going to be two and a half. When did she get so old? Olivia seems to be developing at rapid pace and in a week she's going to be four months- wasn't she just in my belly?

Listening to Lauren read her prayer book just reminded me of what a answer to prayer she is. What an answer to prayer they both are! If I feel joy listening to her read her prayer book, I can only imagine how God feels. As a parent I hope and pray that I'm doing the best I can in bringing my girls up in a way that exemplifies God's love and His desire to be close to us. I'm blessed with wonderful girls and I'm even more blessed with a wonderful Lord. May they always remember to "stop and pray."

"Hold on to instruction, do not let it go; guard it well, for it is your life." Proverbs 4:13

***The book she's reading was given to us by a dear friend. It's a great book and we use it daily before nap and bedtime. She just loves it. The title is Really Woolly Bedtime Prayers. There is a whole bunch of Woolly books out there, I'm sure they're all just as great.***