"Your can say a prayer, mommy?"

Lately, Jeremy has started getting nightmares. I was kind of expecting it to come, since it's really common at this age, and also very common in my family. It's still hard to hear your son wake up in the middle of the night in tears. :(

One side effect of the nightmares is that, at bedtime, after Justin and I leave his room and close the door, sometimes he will start to kind of freak out about monsters or robots coming for his stuffed doggie. One night earlier this week when he did this, I went in, and, unsure what else to do to alleviate his fear, I said a prayer with him, specifically to keep the monsters and robots away, and keep Jeremy safe.

Well, last night, after Justin and I put him to bed, and a few minutes had passed, he started talking about the monsters and robots coming for his doggie. After a few sentences of that, I heard him call for me over the monitor, saying "Mommy, your can say prayer about the monsters?"

Sometimes I wait a little bit before going in, to see if he's insistent or just trying to stall bedtime. That sentence, though, had me up right away! My baby asked me to say a prayer to keep the monsters away, and I am so proud that he is learning that when we're scared, we can pray for comfort. It's hard to watch him have nightmares and be afraid, but it really makes me happy that he's learning to trust God, and learn what source he can turn to for peace and comfort.

Plus his little ungrammatical way of saying "your can say prayer about monsters?" is just adorable. :)

Some weeks (last week in particular) are hard, and I feel like I'm barely accomplishing anything besides keeping my child alive, but last night was a good evidence to me that some of the things I'm trying to teach him are getting through. Those are the moments I lean on when it feels like I'm accomplishing nothing.

I didn't write all this to brag, mostly just because it's something I want to remember in the future, and it'll make a great story to tell Jeremy in the future. The story of how he learned that prayer brings comfort. <3