About two months ago, Jesse prayed his first solo bedtime prayer:
Dear Jesus, thank you for our food. Thank you for Jesus, thank you for all the Jesus we want. Amen.
All the Jesus we want. I was blown away by the profound nature of that thought, because it is so true. We are not just given Jesus: we are given all the Jesus, and all the benefits that come with him, that we ever need. I have repeated that thought over and over, as a mantra, during the last few stressful months of our transition.
Since Jesse's first prayer, the topics have grown to include family, trains, and more, but the sentence structure remains the same: Thank you for Grammy, thank you for all the Grammy we want. Thank you for trains, thank you for all the trains we want.
What a great place to be, where you stop and thank God not just for his gifts, but for the abundance of them! Justin and I have found ourselves incorporating this phrase into our own prayers, and find ourselves marveling at how much God really does give.
Jesus promises his followers in John 15 that he did not come just so we could have life, but so we could have life to the full. This reminds me that I am not meant to just exist. Rather, my life has an awesome purpose, that is meaningful now, in this earthly time. I often forget to look for it or to reach for it, but the truth remains that Jesus came so I could live an abundant life. And that is something for which I can never say thank you enough.
My desire is that I will never forget to say thanks to God for his blessings. I have nothing without God, but with him, I have everything I could ever possibly need. Thank you, God, from the bottom of my heart, for all the Jesus we want.
What a great post. I'm going to have to use that phrase.
ReplyDelete"Thank you for all the ____ we want."