Amazing Grace

A piece of art drawn by Evan

There is no doubt that my husband and I embrace our faith and religion and try to pass them along to our children. We understand and appreciate that we have received many blessings in our lives. And, we are thankful for many things, including our families, our friends, our jobs, our health, the roof over our heads, the food on our table, and the ability to enjoy dinner together as a family most nights.

In fact, dinner is one of the only times our family gathers together each day, so it is a special, sacred, and sometimes silly time. Before my husband and I got married, I would eat dinner in front of the TV, and I rarely thought about praying. When we got married, Nicholas led our dinnertime prayers, and our ritual started. Quickly and seriously, he would recite “Bless us oh Lord, and these Thy gifts which we are about to receive through Thy bounty through Christ our Lord. Amen.”

I remember when Olivia came home one day from Bright Ideas and announced that she wanted to say grace. So, our ritual evolved. In her little voice, she whispered, “God is great. God is good. Let us thank Him for our food. Amen.” Short, sweet, and to the point. Then, one day after she started kindergarten, we waited for her to pray. Suddenly, in a wonderful melodic tone, she sang, “Oh, the Lord is good to me, and so I thank the Lord for giving me the sun and the rain and the apple seeds. Oh, the Lord is good to me. We love our bread, we love our butter, but most of all, we love each other.” Still very sweet, maybe a little long, but the sentiment was wonderful. So we adopted it, and our ritual changed again.

Naturally, as soon as Evan started saying grace at Bright Ideas, he wanted to take over the reins, but Olivia wasn’t ready to fully give them up. So, Evan and Olivia have come up with a compromise with a little twist. (And, God help us if we are super hungry…) They both start out screaming our short and sweet favorite “God is great. God is good…” Then, they break into “Oh the Lord is good to me” but as they get to the end, Evan puts his own creative tweak on the prayer, and he makes sure he shouts, “We love our bread. We love our butter, but most of all, we love our mother.”

As Evan gets older, it is going to be so important for him to have structure, rituals, and family time. It’s also going to be important for him to have faith and continue to feel blessed. So, today’s special thing about Evan is his faith and his blessings. May they be abundant, strong, and long-lasting!

OLIVIA'S STREAK