The Blessings of Morning Prayer with the Family

Christians are not either saint or sinner. They are, in fact, both saint and sinner simultaneously (Luther called this in the Latin, simul justus et peccator). St. Paul, writer of 1/3 of the New Testament, gives voice to this in his Letter to the Romans:

So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being [Christian nature], but I see in my members [the parts of the body, a.k.a. “the flesh”] another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. –Romans 7.21-25 (ESV)


One of the great things about having morning prayers with small children is the remarkable "innocence" with which the contrary natures display themselves. We had a lovely example of that this morning. After reading a summary of the First Samuel account of David escaping King Saul through the friendship of Saul's son, Jonathan, we prayed The Lord's Prayer and the gave every one around the table the opportunity to add special things that were on their mind. We had lovely and simple prayers for a good school day, for the unemployed, for the little one to learn new words, and then we came to Mommy at the other end of the table. What happened next is "Exhibit A" of the simul justus et peccator teaching of St. Paul:

Mommy: [Devoutly, with hands folded and head bowed] "Lord, help us to have a good school day. Help us to be obedient..."
Two-year-old: [with smile on face and cream cheese smeared all over the place] "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"

I rest my case.