Pray to God, daily...

The other day, I was doing a little bible study with the boys about laziness.  Which then turned into honoring your parents.  Which brought up a question from the Doorposts study that asked if the boys knew that they were blessings, gifts, to mommy and daddy.  They both gave a very bland "yeah, we know that."  I guess we must tell them that once in a while. 

My husband and I spent a lot of time praying for our boys before they ever arrived.  We wanted a baby very much.  But it wasn't happening.  After several months of trying, we found ourselves pregnant.  Only to lose the baby a very short time into the pregnancy.  We dealt with the pain and grief and anger, and still prayed, often, for a baby.  Finally, a year after our journey began, we found we were pregnant with our oldest son!  He truly was a gift!  And when we were ready to start trying for baby 2, it took about 9 months before we found we were pregnant with our youngest son.  We have been so blessed with 2 amazing young men.  They don't know the whole ins and outs of the story, nor do they need to, but they know well that they were prayed into this world, fervently. 

And so I spent a little extra time this day explaining to the boys that they were, indeed gifts.  I said to them, "Mommy and Daddy prayed to God, daily, for you."  And my son, who will turn 7 on Christmas morning, looked up and said "I didn't know God's last name was Daily!" 

Needless to say we had a good talk about God's name.  I'd like to say the moral of the story is to pray to God, daily.  While that is true, it isn't the end of the story.  In fact, it's just the beginning, actually.  Thanks to that comment, my 10 year old asked what God's name is, really.  And that is a deeper question than I could answer at one sitting. 

Elohim- The Creator
El Elyon- God most high/God is sovereign
El Roi- God sees
El Shaddai- Almighty God/the all sufficient One
Adonai- Lord/Master
Jehova- LORD/The self existent One
Jehovah-jireh - The Lord will provide
Jehova rapha- The Lord is our healer
Jehovah nissi-The Lord is my banner
Jehovah-mekoddishkem- The Lord who sanctifies
Jehovah-shalom-   The Lord is peace
Jehovah-sabaoth- The Lord of hosts/God is our deliverer
Jehovah-raah- The Lord is my Shepherd
Jehovah-tsidkenu- The Lord our Righteousness
Jehovah-shammah- The Lord is there
Qanna- Jealous

That's a pretty good list of names.  Do we even comprehend His holiness?  That may be another post all together.  But truly.  Can we attempt in this Thanksgiving season to begin to wrap our minds around who He is, and how we ought to praise, worship and thank Him?  Maybe starting out, simply, by thanking Him for who His Word says He is in that short list above. 

So, let's begin to pray to God, daily.