At bedtime at Grandma’s house we’d start by setting the table for breakfast – yes, before we went to bed – with plates and cutlery, toast rack and jam tray.  Then in bed we would say a prayer you may know:

Gentle Jesus, meek and mild
Look upon a little child
Pity mice and plicity
Suffer me to come to thee.

I never asked Grandma why we were praying about mice, or what ‘plicity’ was.

In fact I understood almost none of it, and I don’t think that really mattered.  I think what was formational for me was that together we turned our faces towards God.  I knew that Grandma and I were in this together.

That’s an extract of this post for my blog on the Kiwi Families website, from earlier this year. You can read the rest of it there.

Feel free to comment here or there about whether and how you have prayed with kids at bedtime, or how adults prayed with you when you were little – I’d love to hear your experiences.