Teaching My Grandson to Pray

My son Jeremy was on a traveling baseball team the summer before his senior year of high school. We traveled extensively that summer traveling all over the state of Florida, as well as going into Georgia, South Carolina and even spending a week in New York.

One particular trip to Georgia, I took along my grandson Brant who at the time was four years old. We made the trip to Atlanta, Jeremy's team played two games that afternoon and by the time we had dinner, got to our hotel, showered and lay down for the night, it must have been 9:30 p.m. Brant crawled into bed next to me and I told him it was time to say our prayers.

He sat up in bed as he said his standard prayer, "Now I lay me down to sleep, etc". I had taught Brant the five fingers of prayer and after he said his standard prayer, we always did the five fingers.

The thumb because it's closest to your heart, you pray for friends and family. The point finger represents, preachers, teachers, doctors and nurses. The middle finger represents presidents and world leaders. The fourth finger because it is the weakest, represents the sick, abused and the unsaved. The little finger represents yourself, because it is the smallest and the farest away from your heart, everyone else comes before yourself and this is the time to ask for forgiveness and guidance.

With Brant's prayers, he named off our friends and family one by one and usually he had no problem throwing in the pets, birds, trees and so forth. He never was quite tired enough not to draw it out into a long prayer.

Well on this night as he sat next to me reciting his prayer, he finished the standard part and fell straight back on his pillow. I asked him what about the five finger part and he replied, "Mimi just have God bless everyone, I'm tired".

Brant is now 13 and I love to share this story with others. It still brings a smile to my face after all these years. I sometimes remind him of it when it's just he and I. He just smiles and says I remember.

I cherish these moments with Brant and he always has plenty of hugs for his Mimi. I also ask him on every birthday if he remembers what I did the night he was born. "Yes Mimi, they put you in a room with a rocking chair in the hospital and you rocked me all night".

He looks at me, smiles, gives me a hug and says, "I love you Mimi".