Dear God,

My son has yet to grasp the finer points of communion with his heavenly father. His prayers for meals, though fervent, often leave me trying not to laugh, which isn't exactly the spiritual heritage I meant to pass on to my family.

For instance, at the big Sunday Dinner at Great-Grandma's house Zaya decided it was his turn to pray. His prayer went something like this:

"Dear Jesus, Thank you for the food. When I go to church I want to be with my Mommy. Thank you for helping me. Amen"

Yesterday at supper, we traveled even farther:

"Dear Jesus, Thank you for Praise the Lord. I went up to space in a rocket ship. Amen"

I know that Jesus has a sense of humor, and I'm sure God does too, so I hope he gets a kick out of these early prayers we all have, instead of being annoyed with me that I can't seem to teach my child how to pray. Isn't it more important to teach children that God is someone to whom they can pour out all their troubles and joys? That's what he did, really. The first prayer was a "trouble". He doesn't like to leave me to go to Sunday School. The second was a "joy". He loves space and rocket ships, and proceeded to tell us after the prayer how he had gone to Mars in a rocket ship today and saw the huge volcano there. (Olympus Mons)

He told Hubby and I both that Jesus was in his heart. I hope someday he really understands that, and grows quickly from the phase of talking about God to please his parents, to talking with God about how to please Him.