GWG Episode 6

It's been a while since the last GWG.  My apologies.  We now bring you back to the latest episode of Games With Grandma.  It got cut off at the end. 

 

Prayer of My Father



Two nights ago, I knelt down beside Dax's bed to say his evening prayers with him.  This proves to be a difficult task every night as he is in full "I'm-not-going-to-bed" mode.  So, I have to engage him in some way to help him focus.  On this night, I said to him,

"Do you want to hear the prayer that Grandpa Bud used to say with Daddy every night when he was a little boy?"

Dax nodded affirmatively.  So, with that, he knelt on his bed before me, closed his eyes and folded his arms; ready to repeat the words I would recite to him.  Words that I have easily recited a hundreds of times before when I was as young as Dax is now.  Saying my prayers with my Dad began when I was a child, but I don't recall exactly how old I was when I began saying this particular prayer with my Dad.  I assume it was from the get go and it was likely the same prayer that he said with his Mother or Father when he was a child.  As I grew older, the habit of saying my evening prayers before going to bed was well established.  Unfortunately, so was the habit of reciting this same prayer, every night.

Me:  "Now I lay me"
Dax:  "Now I lay me"
Me:  "Down to sleep"
Dax:  "Down to sleep"
Me:  "I pray the Lord"
Dax:  "I pray the Lord"
Me:  "My soul to keep"
Dax:  "My soul to keep"

At this point my mind briefly scrambled for the next line.  It had been, after all, at least 3 decades since I last uttered the poem.  For some reason my mind thought the next line was, "If the bough breaks".  Nah...that's not it.  HAHA!  Then it quickly settled in what the next line was and I immediately grew nervous to say the words and have Dax repeat them.  I had already come this far...there's no turning back now...so I proceeded. 

Me:  "If I die"
Dax:  ...pausing...I opened my eyes and saw that Dax had a panicked look on his face and was staring right at me.
Me:  "If I die", I repeated.
Dax:  ...I swear he swallowed the lump in his throat before proceeding...Gulp..."If I die"
Me: "Before I wake"
Dax:  ...again staring at me in nervousness as if to say, "AM I GOING TO DIE IN MY SLEEP?!  IS THAT WHAT YOU'RE TELLING ME?!"
Me:  "Before I wake", I said again.
Dax:  "Before I wake"
Me:  "I pray the Lord"
Dax:  "I pray the Lord"
Me: "My soul to take"
Dax:  ...at this point I thought he was going to wipe his hands of this whole ordeal and walk out, but he didn't skip a beat and finished..."My soul to take".

We finished with the last part of the prayer the same way that the younger me did with my Father...faithfully..."God bless Mommy, God bless Daddy, God bless Sissy, God bless Daxie, God bless Marley..."  Obviously, when I was a kid it was "Mommy, Daddy, Markie, Jimmy and Scotty".  Of course, we finally ended our prayer in Jesus'  name, Amen. 

In the end, all was well, but there were a few seconds that I don't know how comfortable Dax was with the whole thing.  Nonetheless, we got through it and hopefully he wasn't too traumatized by the prayer.  I don't remember as a kid ever thinking twice about it, but as I look back, I'm glad I learned the true order of prayer.  I now recognize prayer as it truly is, conversing with Heavenly Father, not so much making wishes and reciting morbid (albeit well intended) poetry.  I am very grateful my Dad understood the value of prayer and how important it was for me to develop that habit early on. 

Now that I have Dax's full attention, hopefully he will be more attentive during prayer time.  :)