FAMILY PRAYER – LEARN FROM YOUR LITTLE ONES

by: Norberto Betita

As we are observant to the actions and responses of our little ones on the things and activities around them we are able to learn something from them.

Daily prayer is a routine in our family. Two of our grandchildren who are living with us usually just play around while we have our family prayer. We could not pressure them because they would eventually cry and therefore disturb our prayers. When my grandson Rulon Asher was about five years old we always encourage him to say our prayer, but he would not. Later he decided that he would pray but he should be assisted by his father.

  

One evening while our foster daughter was saying our family prayer I noticed that Rulon Asher was just playing with his toy cars, and I thought he was not listening. However, after the prayer he pointedly asked our poster daughter why she did not include him in her prayer that God would bless and heal him from his sickness. We were all astonished. 

From such experience I was taught lessons by my little grandson Rulon Asher that children are really learning more from the things that the family are regularly doing.  Although they are busy with their toys, their minds and hearts are set on what actually is happening with the family activity. As we continued to encourage Rulon Asher to pray, he eventually accepted an assignment to pray for the family. Our prayers are not memorized so we just allowed him to say what he wanted to pray about. To our surprise, he prayed for his mother and aunt who are working abroad expressing gratitude for their protection and pleading for more protection for them. We all give him a hug and a kiss. Later in his prayers he would already include the families of our children and even for his maternal grandparents.  Now Rulon Asher is six years old and he no longer waits for praying assignment but volunteers to offer a prayer for the family.

In our regular family scripture study his part is to read the chapter heading. He has difficulty reading the words in the scripture especially that we are using the English scripture, but he always wanted to learn. My one year old grandson Travis joins with us at the dinner table and while we are reading, he just play his toys. Although he could not read, he is provided by his parents a set of scriptures. Later, when I would call everybody for our family scripture reading, he would also go and get his scripture, which means that he is learning that when we sit together around the dinner table we need to bring our personal copy of scripture.

I was well educated by my dear little ones that learning are not only attained by those who are most capable to understand, but even the infants who can neither talk, walk, or read and write are capable of learning moral and spiritual values. When given the opportunity to observe and listen on values oriented family activities they will be able to comprehend and grow by such experiences.

An old adage is very familiar to all, “The family that prays together stays together.” Indeed, I learned from my little ones that such is true as they pray for each family member mentioning their names as if God does not know them, and for each of my children’s families. Their simple and untarnished language of prayer uttered in infantile humility is answered by a loving Heavenly Father and becomes a binding link for the family to hold fast together in unity and love.