Confessions of a 4-year-old…Faith of a child

If you know Mia, it’s no secret that she’s our resident girl drama queen.  Tonight before prayers, she came in and gasped hyperventilated and had a fit as she realized she had a red scab on the top of one of her toes.  Patrick came in to examine her…he’s the one with all the patience for her drama.  I tend to brush it off.  If I’m in a good mood, I offer her an ice pack from the freezer.

Anyway, Patrick looked at the offending scab and told Mia to stop biting her toenails.  She looked at him with this shocked look on her face that half looked like she was going to deny it and half looked shocked that he knew her little secret.  The rest of the conversation went something like this…

Patrick:  Have you been biting your toenails?

Mia:  No…Yes.

Melissa:  Really?  When do you do that? (I realize that it’s busy with three kids running around but I thought I would notice my daughter bent over snacking on her dirty, stinky feet).

Mia:  In the car.  I do it all the times.  She shrugs like it’s old news.

Patrick:  That explains why her feet always hurt.

Melissa: But what about her belly?  <horrified pause>  Mia, do you eat your toenails?

Mia:  No, I spit them out.

Melissa: HUGE SIGH.

Patrick:  Mia, don’t bite your toenails anymore.  That’s why you have a red mark.

Mia:  Sometimes I eat them.

Patrick:  Don’t eat them anymore.  Actually, don’t bite your toes (or your fingers) anymore, ok?

Mia:  Ok.

Ooy vay.

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Fast forward to prayer time.

Excerpt from Mia’s prayer…

“Dear God, Thank you my toe to feel better.”

As a grammar faux pas, Mia always prefaces her prayer requests with “Thank you…” –even the ones that should start “Help…”  It gives her prayers this amazing faith-of-a-child quality.  As she prays, I am always struck by the fact that she seems to be (however inadvertently) thanking God, in advance, for answering her prayer…as though she is certain that He will answer it.  Maybe more of us should adopt this mentality.