I can't remember exactly when we started doing this (sometime in 2009, I think), but one of the parts of our family prayer rule for morning prayers is to pause and have each person say thank you to God for something. I started it as a way to involve both girls in the prayers in a way they can understand (they already have assigned parts to sing) and stress the importance of gratitude.
At first I was impressed by the fact that H. often expressed thanks for things like icons or the cross, and then I became concerned that she was just putting on a show and wasn't really digging in to find something she was grateful for. I liked K. (who was at the time less than two years old)'s thank yous for food or going swimming. They seemed more concrete, more like things a small child would be thankful for.
Over time, even K.s thank yous started to include mostly religious themes, and this morning, as I listed to her thank God for Saint Columba (whose icon card she was holding at the time) I realized just how appropriate those kinds of statements of gratitude are. There we are, standing in our icon corner, surrounded by crosses, prayer books, oil, holy water, the Bible, and images of holy people. Of course the girls would be thankful for those things and what they represent. They are living only in the moment and place in which they find themselves and they are thankful for it. Glory to God for that!
1 comment:
I'm envying you so way of family upbringing. Unfortunately such traditions in our russian families are almost forgotten. Even in religious orthodox families a prayer rule is considered as sufficient thing, no free improvised prayers. It's very sad :((
Excuse my English.
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