Kids & Parenting

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Every night when my husband helps our little ones with their prayers, he leads them to thank God for their “nose, toes and bellybutton”. It’s become their favorite part of their bedtime prayer. Watching, it’s easy to say “aah, how cute” all the while overlooking the profound spiritual implications of the moment. I admit that I once did that, too. When Charles first started including that in their prayer, my first thought was, “cute, but silly”. I’ve changed my mind.

A lot of us never get around to thanking God for the mundane because it‘s just so average and normal. After all, almost everyone has a “nose, toes and bellybutton”; it’s part of being human--a gift from the Creator. Exactly. A gift. Something we didn’t earn, couldn’t demand, didn’t expect. I mean, how many of us, when we came wet and bawling out of mama thought, “Let me check and see if all of my pieces are in place. Nose? Check. Toes? 10 of them--all wiggly. Bellybutton? Well, not yet, but maybe in a few days”? Of course not. We didn’t know what we were supposed to have when we were born and when we discovered our “wiggly things” we were delighted.

Oh, that we would be delighted now, also. Have you ever seen anyone attempt to walk without some of their toes? Their gate is slow and awkward. How many of us want to give up our nose? We may think it’s too long, too short, too pudgy or too square but we want it…perhaps in a different shape, but to face life without a nose? No, thank you, it just wouldn‘t look right. Do you realize that half of taste is smell? Maybe those of you who love to eat should be down on your knees right now thanking God for the gift of your nose. And your bellybutton? Inny or an outie, it doesn’t matter; your bellybutton is uniquely yours and is one of the things that marks you as uniquely you. It is a reminder of the lifeline between you and your mother as God knit your body together in her womb. It shows how the Creator thought of you and began designing you before anyone else, including your mother, even knew of your existence.

What other mundane things do we forget to thank God for? Bright, sunny days? Starry nights? Rain? A field of wildflowers? A gorgeous sunrise or sunset? What about the food on our table? I don’t mean “blessing it” when we sit down to gulp it down but really taking time to consider that the Giver of the food is none other than the Lord Himself? What about our everyday stuff? Clothes? Shoes? Socks? Pretty hair bows for your girls? Perhaps, for some of you, you have more than enough to see you through and buying those things is, well, mundane. Thank God anyway for your money making ability came from Him. For those of us who have less than we need to get by, each outfit or pretty hair bow, each needed pair of shoes or socks is an obvious blessing that, when we really stop to thank about it, it’s great to thank the Lord for them as we sing His praises.

So, is thanking God for “nose, toes and bellybuttons” mundane? Absolutely not. It may just be the kind of prayer that God loves to hear the most. After all, it was He Himself Who, through the Apostle Paul, instructed us to “in everything give thanks” (I Thessalonians 5: 18). Thanks to my husband, Charles, my children are learning to do just that.

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