Little People's Prayers

Since Leyden could talk, this has been her nightly prayer:

"Now I lay me down to sleep.
I pray the Lord my soul to keep.
If I should die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take.
God bless everybody in the whole wide world
but 'cept the mean old Grinch!
Amen."

[Side story: When Leyden first started saying this prayer, she was knee high to a grasshopper and instead of blessing the whole sweet world by name, she blessed her impatient mama by saying, "God bless everybody in the whole wide world." This might be due, in part, to the fact that the child has a large extended family on all three sides. The "mean old Grinch" part came into play when she saw The Grinch That Stole Christmas for the first time. She didn't like how the mean Grinch hurt people, so she un-blessed him. But not the GOOD Grinch, mind you, only the mean one. And there is a difference, trust me! Anyway, back to the post...]

Sometimes, she will stop after "but 'cept the mean old Grinch" and list a few people who are really on her mind. That used to be a rare occurence, and the blessed people were usually sick or hurt, or had lost a loved one.


When Grandaddy died, Leyden started listing her great-grandparents because two were sick (Gran and Papa) and one had lost her husband and wasn't doing well with her dementia (Grand Brown). And she always said them in the same order: Grand Brown, Gran, and Papa. Papa Charlie had his surgery and she added him to the list. "God bless Grand Brown, Gran, Papa, and Papa Charlie." Then in June Papa Charlie died and Papa died, so she was down to Grand Brown and Gran. Then, Mickey got sick and she added him, "God bless Grand Brown, Gran, and Mickey."

Well, the day that Gran died, as I was putting Leyden to bed, she said her prayer. That night, she ended it by saying, "God bless Grand Brown..." and there was a long pause, "...and Mickey." It was like her own personal moment of silence for Gran.

Then the next night, Mickey died. Leyden was at home so she could go to school a few more days, and I was in Gadsden with Dad, so I didn't see her until the day after Mickey died, but when she said her prayers, she said, "...but 'cept the mean old Grinch, and God? [long pause] ...God, please be with Grand Brown." Bless her heart. She's suffered so much loss is such a short time, my heart aches for her. But she knows where they are - they are all in heaven.

She and one of her school friends were riding in the car with me the other day. This particular friend lost her great-grandfather this year, too, and they were discussing how this is their first Halloween without their great-grandfathers. We never saw Gran and Grandaddy at Halloween, so I don't imagine we'll miss them as much at Halloween as we will at Thanksgiving and Christmas. Christmas is going to be different this year, for sure. But I'm glad those two girls have each other to lean on and share their feelings.

The one person we're going to ache for at Halloween is Papa Charlie. He always had a beanbag toss at the church Fall Festival. And he always dressed in overalls and Leyden always played the game with him. We missed Papa Charlie at Cheaha, and we miss him every time we go to church. He was such a fixture in our lives, and in our hearts. Halloween will be hard this year, for sure.

You know, little people's prayers don't go unanswered. God heard every word of Leyden's monotonous prayer, but He also heard the "God blesses". And you know what? He blessed every one of the people that Leyden asked Him to bless. He just did it in His own way, not our way. Amen to that. Amen!