Joshua's Prayers

Joshua's Prayers

Yesterday at Church the lesson was on prayer, and it was so beautifully given and caused me to reflect on the family and personal prayer.  I have so many sweet memories of both kinds of prayer, both as a child and as a mother.  One of the many miraculous experiences with Joshua is that he did learn how to say prayer - and with his innocence and love, there is no doubt of his sincerity even with his limited understanding.

Because he could not say complete sentences, I worked on helping him pray with prompts.  For example, with much effort and practice, here is how a typical prayer would sound:

Me:  Our dear Heavenly ...
Joshua:  Fauder (Father)

Me:  We are thankful for this ...
Joshua:  Day

Me:  Please bless ...
Joshua:  Jemma (Jeremy).  Where is he? 

Me:  Please bless ...
Joshua:  Jamie.  Where is she?

Me:  Please bless ...
Joshua:  Selma.  Where is she?

Me:  Please bless ...
Joshua:  Daddy.  Where is he?

Me:  Please bless ...
Joshua:  Jatob (Jacob).  Where is he?

Me:  Please bless ...
Joshua:  Jasson (Janson).  Where is he?

Me:  We are thankful we went to the park and played on the ..
Joshua:  Slide!  Whee!!

Me:  Help us to have a nice ...
Joshua:  Sleep (laughing)

Me:  In the name of Jesus Christ
Joshua:  Amen

These are treasured moments.  Each prayer was different, and many times he would erupt with laughter and joy whenever he blessed someone in particular.  You never knew who would get blessed, how many times, or random family members and friends would be part of the blessing too!  And of course the prayers were not without aggression or frustration, but we were always blessed to feel the sweetness of communication with our Heavenly Father.

In my sister Vickie's funeral talk, she talked about her experience of praying with Joshua:

Joshua's Grandpa Larson, Joshua and Vickie

There’s a scripture in 3^rd Nephi 17 that I would like to modify for a little bit.  Because one of the things that was important to Selma was teaching Joshua how to pray, and she did accomplish that.  To preface this, when I was 18, Joshua was 9, Jeremy was 7 and Jamie was 3, Selma and Michael went on a one week vacation and I was chosen to watch these rascals.  And it about did me in.  It’s probably the reason I’m still not married.  And, oh man, it was hard.  And I learned the amount of patience that it took, and love it took to care of a special needs child 24 hours a day.  But the first night I learned a very important lesson.  It was important to Selma that Joshua learned how to pray, and every night before he would go to bed, she would kneel with him by his side, and Michael too, and they would say a prayer.  And he would bless everyone and everything.  Well the first night Selma was gone, it was really hard for Josh.  And he kept waking up, and coming into the room, and looking at me and not being very satisfied with what he saw.  And I’d get him a little calmed down, and take him back to his bed and he wouldn’t let me put him in his bed until we prayed.  We said five additional prayers that night.

And it’s something that I pondered, and have pondered, again, how someone like Joshua could understand the importance of praying to God, and someone like me, at that point, didn’t.  Joshua’s prayers were very special because he blessed those who he loved the most.

I would like to end with 3^rd Nephi, chapter 17, verse 17.  “And no tongue can speak, and neither can there be written by any man, neither the hearts of men conceive so great and marvelous things as we both saw and heard Joshua speak and no one can conceive of the joy which filled our souls at the time we heard him pray for us unto the Father.”