There are times when I find it difficult to pray.

I come to terms with that (and then inevitably fall out-of-terms again) most meaningfully when I re-examine what it means to have an awareness of and communication with The Divine. At present, most of my prayer-life is very contemplative, and the times I use words are usually in a benediction type of spoken prayer. Paring it down to gratitude, quietness, and being a conduit of blessing feels like the right thing to my heart right now.

I really do appreciate lots of different ways of praying and being in the presence of God, even if I don’t practice all of them currently. I remember being a kid, watching Fiddler on the Roof, and being impressed with Tevye’s ongoing casual chat with God. Little did I know then that I would one day have a kid who would approach his conversations with God in a similar friendly way, with bedtime prayers more like shooting the breeze with a friend than a ritualized, formal situation.

This is years ago now, as Oliver, the kiddo in question, has reached the venerable age of 15, and no longer chats with God quite like this. But turn the clock back 10 or 11 years, and nightly prayer time was predictably unpredictable. I would scramble out of his room after tucking him in to write his prayers down word-for-word and then post them online, just to keep a record and to entertain my friends and family. 

If you, like me, are sometimes feeling a little dry in your prayer life, I hope you find a little bit of that invigorating chat-with-a-friend sparkle in these bedtime prayers from four-year old Oliver!

Dear God, thank you for the nice day. [pause] Do you have any problems, God? If you do, you probably need to get an engineer. That’s their job, to solve problems. Structural problems. . . other problems. . . Sometimes they drive trains but that’s a different kind of engineer. And thank you that Mom made good snacks today. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Dear God, thanks for the nice day. I talk to you every day. It’s nice that I can talk to you. But how come you don’t talk back? You can if you want. But you’ll have to buy a ticket. You can get tickets on our website, or on Twitter. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Dear God, this is Captain Triangle-Eyes. Otherwise known as Oliver. I just wanted to tell you because, did you know that I have super-powers? When there’s a super-villain around and people need me to rescue them, they ACTIVATE my powers and then my eyes turn into special triangles. That’s why I’m Captain Triangle-Eyes. Nobody needed my super-powers today but maybe tomorrow will do the trick. I hope, I hope that a super-villain comes tomorrow. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Dear God, thank you for the nice day. Thank you for ALL the things I need. Like respect. And hope. And manners. And sunscreen. Everyone needs sunscreen when they go outside. Even Spiderman, right God? We wouldn’t want Spiderman to get a sunburn just because he made that mistake. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Dear God, how old are you? I’m four. Are you… FIFTY? Nine thousand million? Hmm. Do you have to wear glasses? Well, do you? If you have glasses, I promise that when I see you I won’t say, “Haha, four-eyes!” ‘cause that’s not nice, so I won’t call you that. Four-eyes. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Dear God, thank you that I have lots of skills, and a glow stick, and lots of predictions. Here’s one prediction. I predict that if any bad guys drink this glowing venomous sauce in my glow stick, they will die. God, please don’t drink this sauce, because it’s venomous. And that is my story of a prayer. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Dear God, I really hope that you never make me go to the center of the earth. There’s rock down there that’s hot lava. And what if. . . what if I accidentally punched the lava? What if I had super-strength? What if I cracked that stone of the earth with my super-punch and the yolk broke into a hundred pieces? The rock is just a shell, God. There’s a giant, hot, giant yolk in the middle of the earth. If I cracked it by accident and the whole earth broke apart. . .then. . . all the people would be just living lost in space. So don’t make me punch the lava, ever. In Jesus’ name, amen. Wow, that was a long pray.

Dear God, thanks for the nice day. Last night – the night before tonight, that’s the one I mean – I had a dream that I was watching Batman on Netflix. I just need to know, why did you give me that dream? What. . . what was the point of that? Does it mean that that will come TRUE? Well, you think about that. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Dear God, thank you for the nice day. Thank you for the wonderful day, and. . .wait. Wait. Ha ha, I just said the same thing, Mom! Okay. . . Dear God, thank you for the nice day. Thanks that it was such a nice day. Awww. . . I don’t know what else to say, God. We had tacos, God. It was a wonderful day, God. That’s all. So in Jesus’ name, amen.