Prayers for Monday

Thank you, Lord, for this day full of new opportunities to learn and to get along with each other, even in confined spaces with mud and drippy fog outside the door.

Thank you that the casters for my desk chair are not permanently lost, but simply disassembled by an ambitious small boy. Thank you that my red pen is not lost either, but found in my son’s desk instead of with my stapler which does seem to be lost for real.

Thank you for paper and this smooth gel pen: that I can grip them in my hands and write orderly lines of assignments for the week. Thank you that the days and days have already added up to 7th grade for my one son and 4th for the other.

Thank you for this pile of quizzes and tests all finished last week and ready to file away in portfolios to prove that we are serious about education. Thank you for this new box of sheet protectors that I ordered last week so that I can actually do this filing.

Thank you for the pages and pages of original artwork that are windows into my children’s thought processes and into the creativity that You have placed in them. Thank you for the paper snibbles and the yarn strings and the puzzles on the kitchen floor that she is clever enough to do on her own now.

Thank you for eggs, scrambled for lunch because the fridge contains only condiments and ingredients.

Thank you for a washer that hums along efficiently so that I only have to toss things into and out of it. Thank you that I get to be domestic and help my 10 year old fold laundry into neat piles. Thank you for the boots and the single glove that are lost no longer.

Thank you for a nap sneaked in while lying on the bed with the smallest tot, and for the audio books that keep my girlies interested for the entire quiet time hour.

Thank you for the puppy that entertains the boys with her antics, and the kitten that the little ones managed to catch and coddle for hours this afternoon. Thank you that the suspicious smell wasn’t what we thought it might be.

Thank you that my first grader can read mostly on her own and enjoy the subtle poetry in “The Little Grey Pony”. Thank you for the astounding motivational power of stickers.

Thank you for a big boy who can mix up granola while I stir the dinner roll dough and the crock pot cooks supper.

Thank you for a long evening with my husband home, reading stories with the girls before tucking them into their nests.

Thank you for bedtime!

Amen.