Sweet Boy and Night Night Rituals

Here is sweet Micah singing his best to the last verse of "All Creatures of Our God and King."
At church, we sing a verse of a particular song for several weeks. We love this because it gives us time to teach the song to the boys, and the look of joy on their faces as we sing together on Sunday mornings in priceless. We often sing the song on the way to church and then often throughout the week and always at bedtime. One thing Matt does every night no matter how tired he is, what game is on, or how late it has gotten, is gather up the boys for "prayer time" in Micah's room. Owen used to go to bed, and Matt would do the ritual with Micah (it is the same every night; Micah would have it no other way!). But now, even if he is literally falling on the bed from exhaustion, Owen is determined to stay awake and be there with the family. He loves watching Micah as he helps read the Bible (we are going through the Psalms right now), spins circles to the songs, and walks around the room helping with the prayers. "Oh, please give everyone a good night's sleep." "Oh Lord, we pray especially for Mama, and Dada, and Micah, and Loaf"--Matt adds in the specifics. "Oh Lord, please be with Uncle Drewby, Uncle Bomp, and Uncle Micah"- again Matt on the specifics. He says these words with such passion as he walks around the room with his finger pointing upward and his arm pumping up and down. Matt and I often have to bite our cheeks to keep from laughing. After prayers, there is a whole slew of songs that we sing including "Holy, Holy, Holy," or as Owen sings it "Ho, Ho, Ho," "Jesus Loves Me," Micah 6:8, "The Doxology," and sometimes "Joyful, Joyful" (or as I call it "the spinning song" because the boys spin circles for this one!) As I was going through an old scrapbook, I found our wedding program. I couldn't help but smile as I saw that one reading was from Psalm 100 (Micah's favorite because he loves the number 100!), and some of the songs were: "Holy, Holy, Holy," "All Creatures of Our God and King" and "Ode to Joy." I hadn't even realized the connection until now, and it is neat to think that the selection of songs and Scripture from our wedding day are being passed on to our children.