For THIS Child I Have Prayed??

Kevin and I were in the car yesterday with two kids who were fighting and screaming and arguing -- over a DVD player, no less and I looked at him and said, "I prayed for this, you know." He smiled, and I pondered and then we had the following amusing conversation. I think when our kids are older they will get a kick out of it -- when they have their OWN kids, that is. If you have or have ever had kids, I suspect you'll get a kick out of it too.

I said, "You know, Kevin, I think all these years we've all be interpreting Hannah's line in the Bible all wrong."

Kevin: "Hannah? Huh?"

Me: "You know, where she says, 'For this child I have prayed and the Lord has given me what I asked of Him.' You know, where she thanks God for Samuel and agrees to give him back to God for His service?"

Kevin: "Yeah, so?"

Me: "Well, she had raised him until he was two (same age as Ellie) and she had HAD ENOUGH and was taking him back to God and was saying, 'For THIS child I have prayed???' I can almost hear her saying, 'Oy! What was I thinking? Why didn't someone mention this terrible twos phase? Yeah, I prayed for him, but hey, you can have him back until he's, oh, twenty or so. What was I thinking?' I am CERTAIN there was a question mark and not a period after that statement she made."

We had a good chuckle over it. I'm pleased to report that later in the night when Ellie flunked out of the bed onto the floor, her "Bubba" beat me to her to pick her up, hold her, stop her crying and get her back to sleep. There is love between the two of them after all!