You can tell a little kid just about anything and they'll believe it, no matter how big or how small the tale is-they will believe just about anything you tell them.
I didn't pray much as a little kid. In fact praying was pretty much non-existent in my family. Back then my prayer ability was limited to my repetitious mastering of the two standards; one was the Lord's prayer and the other was the Hail Mary. As a young Catholic you pretty much had to stick to the standards. Looking back, that was chanting and not prayer at all; looking that far back conjures up memories I would rather not revisit anyway so back on track here.
Have you ever snuck up on your kids, when they were tiny and peeked in on them while they said a goodnight prayer or ever overheard them just talking to God casually? It's kind of funny to think about it that your little one might get wrapped up in a casual conversation with God sitting there at a little table, just the two of them; your little girl and God having a tea party. What imagery. Perhaps you've gotten a private glimpse of your little boy in despair over something so small in your eyes yet something huge in his as he barters with God; "God if you just do this for me I swear I'll never do (fill in the blank) again."
As these thoughts came into my head I got to thinking about how I tend to operate and wondered how many others are the same way. What I wondered about was the size box we tend to confine God to. Some of us keep Him in a small box and some in a big box. What I mean by that is-some of us look to God for help a lot and some of us very little. There are several reasons for this I suppose. In my case, I sometimes don't ask Him for help with the little things. It's easy to get caught up in thinking He doesn't have time for my little problem, after-all, He has much more important prayers to answer that this little trivial thing of mine...right? We're encouraged to dream God-sized dreams and to believe that God is bigger than any problem we face and that nothing is too big for God. In so doing, I think we sometimes, some of us anyway, get to thinking our little needs, wants, hopes and dreams are too small to bother God with. How can we distract Him from important stuff like healing a friend of cancer, mending a broken heart facing divorce or looking after a widow or orphan and feeding the hungry. How can we bother God with our petty little issues?
The thing that keeps coming into my head is "childlike Innocence". It's not about how we think God is or what we think He should do or how He should respond to us but that we should recognize Him as the God He is; God the Father. What kind of dad would deny his child even the simplest request? Whatever the need we should turn to God "expecting". No good dad would treat one child any differently from another. Every good dad loves all of his kids equally. Every good dad plays the role of tooth fairy. How ever small your need is-place it under your pillow tonight because nothing is too small for God.
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