Spiritual Little Boys

At the beginning of the year we made a goal to read scriptures everyday as a family. We haven't missed a day yet! We usually just read 4 verses (one for each member of the family). We help Ethan "read" his verse, we say a line and he repeats it. The other night we all cracked up when Clark said "open the gates of righteousness," Ethan repeated, "open the gates for the rhinoceroses."

Starting a few weeks back Caden has been wanting his turn. It is so cute to hear him repeat a few words and sounds that he hears. He is always so proud of himself.

We also try to pray together as a family every night before bed. I will be honest, our prayer times often look a lot like a WWF arena. Caden thinks it is great fun to body slam Ethan during prayers. Ethan thinks its a great time to say something funny. Most nights we walk away wondering if they are getting anything out of our little nightly rituals.

Well Monday night I realized Ethan gets it! Clark and I realized that night that the keys to our car were missing (we hadn't driven that car since Friday). We only have one key that will drive that car, so we turned the house upside down searching for the keys. We went outside and searched both cars, went through drawers, the boys toys, the dirty clothes...we felt like we had looked everywhere. We started to wonder if Ethan had maybe picked the keys off of the dresser where we keep them to play with them. We peeked in his room and saw that he was still awake, so we asked him if he had seen the keys. He denied every playing with them. As we were walking out of the room, he said, "I know what you can do to find them, you can pray to Heavenly Father and He will help you." Clark asked Ethan if he wanted to say a prayer. Ethan said the most simple, heart-felt little prayer full of faith asking that Daddy could find his keys.

As we left the room Clark said, "well I know we'll find them now." Within 5 minutes of Ethan's prayer Clark found his keys under a church book where he had looked before. Clark went back in to tell Ethan his prayer was answered. Ethan just smiled and said, "glad I could help Dad."

I love this sweet little boy. And I hope that he always remembers the power of prayer and uses it throughout his life.