The Blessing

The Blessing is a big deal at our house. Rachel and Bradley love to say it before meals. Even Trent likes to get in on it...he squints his eyes and then waits for us to say "Amen". Rachel and Bradley have both had the same pre-k teachers and thus have learned the same prayer. It goes like this:
God our father, God our father,
thank you lord, thank you lord,
for our many blessings, for our many blessings,
A-men, A-men.

Rachel had it down pat when she was in pre-k and still says this sometimes. Bradley's version is a little different. It goes like this:
God our father,
thank you for our blessings, thank you for our blessings,
a-men, a-men, A-Men!
He loves saying it and is so proud of himself.

Recently, Rachel started saying, "oh my God" for things she was surprised about or whatever. We had a couple of discussions with her about how saying, "oh my God" is taking the Lord's name in vain and that it hurts his feelings and makes him mad, and we shouldn't do it, etc...etc... So, last night she was in the tub and she was asking me if we're NEVER supposed to say, "oh my God" for anything. And I told her we could use it when we were praising him and praying with passion and excitement or sadness or whatever...as long as we were speaking to him and wanted to praise him and give him respect...then it was okay. I told her a couple of examples and she seemed satisfied. So, tonight at dinner, first Bradley said his blessing. Then, Rachel wanted to say hers. It went something like this:
"Oh my God! I praise you and am glad I get to pray and praise and thank you for our supper and for praise." Amen
It was hilarious and precious and took all my control to not change my expression or open my eyes.
Precious, sweet kids!