A Child and Prayer

         I had an experience that broke my heart to pieces last night with a child. I know I say that a lot but this one makes me want to get a two bedroom apartment at least or a house more then ever now so I can start fostering children. Bedtime is the sweetest time for me because it is just me and the girls and we can have little talks while I'm rocking each of them. Whether it is about the day ahead or the Bible or what prayer is or what they are feeling and why they acted the way they did that day. It is all part of being a mom to them really and a little girl brought that to my attention last night.
          I actully had a "new" girl looking at the Bible stories now and picking out which one she wants me to read before she goes to bed so there are two girls that will listen to me read the Bible. The one girl told me last night that she loves God and asked if I loved God too and I said, Yes without a doubt in my mind. She also said that she knew how to pray and that she can all by herself. After a little awhile of reading, I asked her if she would like to pray and she said she already did by herself.
          Then there is this other girl that I started reading the Bible to but she kind of backed off from it but then last night as I was rocking her we got to talking about prayer and how to pray because that other little girl brought it up. I tried to pray with her but she kept getting her mind somewhere else and I told her what to pray for and why we pray and how we start and end it so we might have said a 1 min prayer with a lot of questions in between but that is ok. I asked what she wanted to pray for and she said butterflies. I led the prayer like thank you for your friends, your teachers, the food you have and your bed. It was hard and it is in a situation like I'm in. It is different from when I was growing up but I have a better idea today and hopefully she will want to do it again tonight.
              With that same girl, after our prayer I said In Jesus' name, Amen and then we got on the topic of Jesus dieing on the cross for our sins somehow and she started asking questions about that. She asked, "Why did He die on the cross?" My answer was like, "He was saying sorry for us to God for all the sins that we have done." I then asked her do you know what sin is and she said, "No" and then I gave her some example like, "lieing to the teachers, not listening to teachers, not being nice to our friends or sharing with our friends. Jesus is forgiving us saying sorry for us for those things.
               She looked so lost and in that talk she said that she missed her daddy. I saw that she looked lost and confused so I said when you get older maybe someone will explained it to you and you can understand it better then. This is where it broke my heart to pieces but then she said I want you to tell me about it. I started to cry in that room with her clinging onto (hugging) me. These children are searching for something because they know it is out there. This girl is 5 years old.
                It made me think about my children that I might have someday if God is willing. How do you make sure they understand all these hard things? You just have to try your best and pray that God will grab their hearts for good. We take these things growing up and knowing these things for granted so much or at least I do and this made me see that not every child knows about God  but are searching for Him. It is like God is giving me the chance to see what I am going to do and help me get better before and if I have my own children. I hope something gets across to these kiddos and stick with them where ever they go no matter how hard it is. God has me here for a purpose right now and I love it. God could be writing a story with me because this is 3 or 2 things like I've written about the same child but with new Godly things.
                JUST A MINTUE (AWESOME book by Compassion International founder, Wess Stafford) COULD BE AN HOUR TO A CHILD IN NEED!