habits

I can definitely be a creature of habit. 

I have a very specific bedtime routine. 

VERY specific. 

Sometimes the order gets shuffled around, but every night I do the following:

- brush my teeth

- put my retainers in

- take my allergy medicines

- change into my pajamas

- put on Chapstick

Ever since I was a kid, I had a particular routine to complete before going to bed. My little brother does too. I've put him to bed every so often, and he's old enough now that he can do lots of the routine himself, so I just supervise. Sometimes we'll even have teeth brushing parties together, complete with lots of dancing and lots of spitting. 

One part of our bedtime routine toward the very end is praying. 

Mom did this with me when I was growing up, and she does it now with my brother. Whenever I put him to bed, I make sure a prayer is included too. 

It always starts the same: 

Dear God, thank you for this day. 

then continues. 

My bro and I take turns saying "thank you for" statements. These can range from appreciation of his favorite stuffed animal cow to fun things we've done that day to friends and family. 

He and I then switch to "please be with" statements, praying for others who are sick or hurting. My bro can't always think of something to say here, but if we've just been at church or heard some news, he's good about remembering to pray for specific people in this category. 

Lastly, I try to include some "we're sorry for" statements and a little "thanks for loving us anyway", plugging in some confession and forgiveness parts. Back in Sunday school, I was taught the acronym ACTS (appreciation, confession, thanks, supplication) to help remember the well-balanced contents of a prayer. My brother and I are good at the T and S, but the A and particularly C are more difficult to understand and a bit abstract for an 8-year-old. Luckily, I'm good at explaining and doing things in kid-friendly wording (I am, after all, an elementary music teacher). 

Often we close out our prayer by saying the Lord's Prayer together (debts/debtors, like at our home church) which we both have memorized. I'm pretty sure saying the Lord's Prayer almost every night is how both he and I were able to memorize it as kids. 

The little guy frequently starts dozing off before we finish praying, but that's okay. I've told him before, I'm pretty sure God doesn't mind. 

It's a beautiful thing to watch my mom carry on this bedtime tradition with my brother as she did with me. This habit of praying is a simple but formative way to foster a strong, active, daily faith in her children.