Let me tell you about...a family tradition

So, here I am again. This blogging thingy is addictive. It's like with every thought that comes through my mind I think, "Oh, I could write about that." It is really a funny, new thought process. Today is the beginning of the week of Thanksgiving and I have so much to write about thankfulness, but first I want to tell you a little bit about Sundays at our house. Yesterday was Sunday. Sundays are very special days in our house. We all look forward to them. We look forward to seeing friends. We look forward to singing and worshipping. We look forward to being taught from God's Word. We even look forward to Sunday naps. One of my favorite things about our Sundays is a tradition that we began many, many years ago. So...Let me tell you about our Sunday morning drive to church. Years ago, when the children were young, I would always hear about how so many families would fight and argue on their way to church and then put on a fake, happy face when they got out of their cars in the church parking lot. I did not want to be that kind of a family. I wanted us to be real and honest about who we were, but I also didn't want us to have bad attitudes on Sunday mornings. John and I decided that we would give the children something specific to do on the way to church, so... we taught them to "pray on the way".  We would begin at the back of the van and each of us would pray out loud for our Sunday School teachers, our pastor, the worship leaders, our attitudes and our ability to stay focused and learn what God had to teach us. We would also pray for all the people that were trying to decide whether or not to come to church that day. Praying on our way to church has become a great family tradition. An unexpected blessing from it is that it has even taught our kids not to be scared to pray out loud. I think every family could benefit from this tradition.  It's never too late to start "praying on the way". Now that most of our kids have gotten older, we don't all ride together to church anymore, but I'm pretty sure we all still remember to pray.