What I Write About

I write about the infinite number of intersections between every day life and the good news of the God who has come to get us.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Praying Over Petulance

One of the things that Kelly and I like about our church is that each week we take communion, and each week we all go to the front and the kids are prayed for. It's a sweet picture of the leaders of the church blessing our kids.

Except, of course, when the kids are grumpy or obstinate about going forward. In which case the anticipation of a Hallmark moment gets replaced with a prayer that we get through the line quickly before I am forced to scoop up and carry out a child screaming like a ban chi in front of the whole church.

I was having just such a moment last Sunday with our 3-year-old, Zoe.

And as we approached the deacon who was serving the bread, he glanced at her countenance (furrowed brow, arms-crossed, bottom lip firmly in the pout position) and he glanced at my face (a mixture of stressed out and eye-roll at the drama), and he smiled wryly. He put his hand on her head and prayed thusly:

"May the Lord give you his Spirit of peace and gentleness, all the days of your life. Amen."

No doubt.

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