Seeing and Praying Like A Child

Brielle recently borrowed my camera while we were babysitting her cousins at their house. The following are some of the pictures she took. They remind me of one of Ann Voskamp's chapters in One Thousand Gifts where her daughter goes around the house and takes snapshots of this and that. Like Voskamp, I was struck by the angles of the camera and by how things look different from 3 ft high. It reminded me of Voskamp's point...that is, that we should see life through a child's eyes...so that God and the gifts He so freely gives can be magnified in our sight.

I also just read Andree Seu's essay Daddy's Girl from this month's issue of World...and again felt admonished to be like a child before Him, not only in the matter of perception...but also in the way I approach Him. To be childlike as I bring my requests to Him. Not to worry about appearances or eloquence...but to be true and honest with what's in my heart. All of it! The silly desires, the shameful passions, the heartaches, the bothers. He knows them all, anyway...and He cares.

Seu also pointed out that children are often in tune with what their parent is doing... and can usually respond quickly to his or her bidding. I immediately thought of my 2-year-old nephew Adam and his constant desire to know what the closest grown-up in his life is doing, "What you're doing, Auntie?" came out of his mouth many times throughout the day this last week when we had him for a couple of days...and I know his mom's days are peppered with that inquiry.  Am I like that with my Father? Am I on the lookout for what the Holy Spirit is doing around me?  Do I strive to be 'in tune' with Him?

This summer, with my kids up close and personal, I want to watch them carefully so I can learn to see from a child's pespective, pray with a child's honesty, and look for what God is doing the way Adam does.



Brielle and Renee. Oh, to have such bright eyes to see God's world!