Prayers of a 6-year old girl

Lilian said the prayer on our family dinner last night. And along with blessing the food she prayed for three specific things.

1. That the chickens and ducks wouldn't die "...in the next few weeks."
She prays for our feathered friends frequently and tends to ask God not to let them die. To which Bryan has reminded her that all animals die eventually. So she has amended her plea to not allowing them to die for some indeterminate amount of time. I think she was a little worried because she has overheard us talking about the measures that need be taken to keep the little buggers warm in the upcoming days when temperatures are set to drop into the 20's. Lilian loves those chickens and ducks. So much so that every time someone asked her what she was thankful for during Thanksgiving week, "my ducks and chickens" were the first thing she mentioned.

2. That Chester will keep finding places to hide and won't lose his magic.
Our Elf on the Shelf has made his reappearance after a successful inaugural season last Christmas. Though we've tried to have Chester be more of a fun tradition rather than a threat to "Be good or I'll report back to Santa...." and have tried to downplay his supposed "magic" qualities, we have to be careful. Lilian isn't known for her stellar secret keeping abilities. And seeing as quite a few of her friends also have their own family elves and DO fully believe in the whole Elf on the Shelf propaganda, the last thing we need is for Lilian to ruin it for them. So though we don't push it, we don't deny it either....and Lilian has come away with the absolute belief that Chester will not continue to come alive at night and hide in new places if she touches him during the day.

Sunday morning, Chester's first day back, Lilian was delighted to find him on our hearth with a message spelled out in M&Ms. Later that afternoon Lilian was asleep on the couch when Julianne decided she had a hankering for a handful of chocolate. The message itself had been nibbled on throughout the day so, carefully checking to make sure Lilian was still sleeping, she picked Chester up out of the bag with one hand and reached in with the other. And wouldn't you know it, Lilian woke up at that exact moment to catch Julianne in the act of touching the elf!! Oh the horror! The poor girl was distraught. How could Julianne do such a thing? Didn't she know that Chester now wouldn't be able to hide in new places anymore? Lilian spent the next hour frantically writing apology notes....

And in case you don't read phonetically, here is the translation:

Chester, we are sorry. Please come alive tomorrow. It's the first day. I'm sorry for touching you. My sister is sorry for picking you up. We are sorry.
P.S. Pretty please HIDE!

She was tremendously relieved to find Chester making Fruit Loop necklaces on the kitchen counter the next morning...happy and still magical. The sound she made when she saw that Chester was not languishing on the hearth was something between a sigh of relief and a whoop of joy. And now she prays daily that Chester won't lose his magic. Sigh.

3. That she won't end up on Santa's naughty list.
Once again....sigh. Blame this one on Dora the Explorer's Christmas special where Dora and Swiper the sneaky fox work hard to cure Swiper of his swiping habit so he can show Santa that he deserves to be taken off the naughty list and reassigned to the nice list.

Bryan and I shared an eye roll when Lilian finished her prayer. But these are things that are important to a 6-year old. And if she has concerns, even about things that seem somewhat silly to the rest of us, and turns to prayer and her faith that God is listening...well, that's not a bad thing, is it?