Do you?

Every night we pray with Nellie before she goes to sleep. While I don't think she yet understands that we're actually talking to Jesus, she loves the routine of it. We do the 'Thank you, sorry, please' routine. And every night it goes something like this:

Me: What do you want to thank Jesus for tonight?
Nellie: Leo, Tigger, Barney, Bessie, Bears, Safira10 Magenta Penguin, my curtains, my pictures that Daddy put up.
Me: Anything else?
Nellie: No.

Every night. Without fail. Same list. Same order. She's had the same list (up to Safira10) since we started praying with her - MONTHS ago, maybe a year or more now. In the event of there being something to add, it's added at the end and nothing it taken away.

Every night I have a huge mental sigh waiting for her to get the list out. Every night I have to bite my tongue from rushing her through it. Yes, yes, I think to myself. LeoTiggerBarneyBessieBears..... get on with it!!

But tonight, as I was waiting for her to say the list, I found myself wondering why she has the same list. Why does she feel the need to continually thank Jesus for the same things, over and over again? I think Jesus gets it. I think he understands how grateful she is.

Then I remembered something someone said to me earlier this week at cell group about thanksgiving. In talking about prayer, this person had heard someone else tell about his journey. Gentleman X kept a diary of how long it took God to answer his prayers. Then he started an experiment and thanked God for as long as it took for God to answer. So, if it took 3 months for his prayer to be answered, he would go on thanking God for the reply for 3 months after it was answered. (Interestingly, Gentleman X noted that after starting this experiment the average time it took for his prayers to be answered decreased.)

The point was made that we're so quick to get upset when God takes his time in answering, but when he does, we're also quick to forget the answer. Surely we should take better stock of the answers to prayer we receive by thanking God a bit more often and consciously?

Maybe Janel has a point. Leo is very, very precious to her, therefore she goes on thanking God for him - thankful that he hasn't been lost, or broken, or hidden away by Mommy/ Daddy. Tigger is another sleep partner who keeps her safe from falling out of the bed (he lies between her and her sleep guard/ gate). Maybe she goes on thanking God for him because he's a special gift from Granny. Maybe she just appreciates how fortunate she is to have all this stuff - new curtains, toys, pretty pictures.*

Certainly, there is a lesson for me in there. Although I am extremely grateful for my children, surely of far more value than toys and haberdashery, and although I do thank God for them, do I thank him daily for them? Do I thank him daily for the roof over my head, the food in my cupboards, the clothes on my back, my job, my car, for all the gazillion things I have benefited from as a result of being white during Apartheid?

Do I count my blessings daily and thank God for them? Do you?

*Then again, maybe she just likes the routine, like brushing her teeth and eating her vitamins in the morning, without thinking deeply about them all, without understanding that prayer is a conversation with her Creator. Who knows what she really thinks?! It doesn't really matter though - the lesson remains.