A few nights ago I was going through the bedtime rituals with Caroline, which include her saying prayers. We've been talking with the kids for a little while now about being thoughtful in their prayers so that they don't get into the habit of reciting the same prayers over and over again. We also talk with them about the importance of being respectful and attentive while others are praying, you know, like sitting still, keeping all bodily noises under control (we have a lot of boys) and resisting the urge to explode into laughter in the middle of prayer.

On this night, her prayer started out similarly to the prayers I've heard her daddy say more times than I can count. It went something like this; "Dear God, thank you for saving us from our sins. We are sinful and you work on changing our hearts every day." So far, so good... Then, "We need Jesus on this earth. Or you. Whoever." Yeah. That's when I broke my own rule and burst into laughter. Though I think God himself might even have been smiling over that one. Now that we've gotten the "original prayers" lesson well covered, we might need a remedial lesson in theology.