Dear God, thank you for...

Our preschool is a Christian preschool. Pretty much this means we read Bible stories and pray before meals and snacks. The prayer is my favorite part. Each class has helpers (line leader, door holder, and then the prayer helper). The prayer helper can choose to sing a song (to the tune of Frére Jacques)

God our Father, God our Father
Once again, once again
We bow our heads to thank you
We bow our heads to thank you
A-men, a-men

... or the children can say their own prayer. That's where it gets good. We get a lot of what I call "look around" prayers. They go something like this. "Dear God, thank you for our friends, our teachers, our moms and dads, our brothers and sisters. Thank you for our snacks, for our juice, for our napkins, for our cups, for our chairs, for the ceiling..." It's cute how they are truly thankful for everything that they see. We do sometimes have to cut them off and help them say, "in Jesus' name, Amen."

I babysat for one of my students and her sister last weekend. Before I put the girls to bed, I prayed with them. I usually pray that the girls will sleep well and thank God (usually) for the good time we've had together. I let Rosie, my 3-year-old student, go first. I was kind of surprised when she prayed, "Thank you God for my mom and dad, and our house, and for Hollywood..."