New Year...New Prayers

I love laying in bed with my 6 year old daughter listening to her
pray. I don't mean the hurried prayers that are not much more than "
God thank you for everything and everyone in the world. Amen." There
is quite the profundity in those little words, but what I really love
is when she just talks to God about stuff that's important to her.

One thing that I want to begin this year is praying for our neighbors
by name. I had thought about having flash cards with the names of my
neighbors so Garin could pick one each night. I thought we'd just go
around a circle. I thought we could just randomly pick. All my
thoughts hadn't formed any specific plan as of tonight though. When
Garin prayed she specifically prayed for three sets of our neighbors -
the Josephs, the Rasmussens and the Dowlesses. My heart swelled up
with all sorts of feelings - pride that my daughter is starting to
grasp the neighborhood concept, embarrassment that she went ahead and
just launched into it without me having a plan, inspiration to do the
same and a commitment to stay on this path. The most important people
in my daughters world tonight were the three families on our street.
Soon she will be praying for Marcos and Imelda, for Brett and Holly,
for David and Charlotte, and even for the new neighbors that will
eventually be moving into the houses on both sides of us.

What a night who talks about community and neighborhood life a lot,
but not always sure people are listening. Tonight, it was obvious
that one little six year old is listening. No matter how big or small
you feel that your reaches into your neighborhood may be, it's the
consistency that will win out. Step out, introduce yourself, share a
personal story, ask questions...love your neighbors. They just might
be the coolest people you'll ever meet.