answered prayer

i had a sweet experience with mark today that i had to record.

10:00am, monday morning-i was proud of myself for having myself dressed and both my boys dressed and ready to go (dressed, shoes on, diaper bag packed, finished going potty-mark is being potty trained so this can take some time-and caleb in his car seat). yay, we're going to be on time for the visiting teaching appointment at 10:30. we were literally walking out the door when i realized that i didn't have my car keys. shoot. this has become an annoying routine for me, i seem to always be looking for my car keys. i feel like i'm loosing my mind sometimes. honestly, i never lost my car keys until i became a mom and now i can never find them. ugh. i start frantically looking around the house for my car keys. i had just had them in my hand! where could they having possibly gone?! i'm searching everywhere i've been in the last 30 minutes: bathroom, couch, toy box, car seat, and i'm constantly asking mark "did you take mommy's keys?" "help me find mommy's keys" "if you had mommy's keys where would you put them?" and i'm yielding no results. i'm watching the clock slowly tick 10:03, 10:05, 10:07. i know that it takes at least 25 minutes to get to my appointment, so already i'm late. the later it gets the more frustrated i'm becoming. finally after 10 minutes of running around the house i decide that the only way i'm going to find these stupid keys is to say a prayer. i look at my two year old, mark, and realize that this might be a good teaching experience for him about how heavenly father answers prayers.

i look at mark and say, "mark, did you know that every time we pray to heavenly father he hears us."

mark, "yes mom, i knowed that."

me, "good. did you know that through prayers heavenly father can help us and give us answers to questions we have."

mark, "oh yeah."

me, "mommy can't find her keys, but heavenly father, who knows everything, knows where they are. let's say a prayer and ask heavenly father to help us find mommy's keys."

mark, "ok mommy"

so i kneel down with mark and we say a quick prayer together. after the prayer i get up and do another quick scan around the kitchen. no promptings. "ok mark, mommy is going to retrace her steps around the house to see if heavenly father will tell her where her keys are."

mark, "no mommy, i knowed your keys...'dight dere."

me, "what mark, you know where my keys are?"

mark, "yeah, look...cawub."

me, "there with caleb?"

mark, "yeah" he reaches up and pulls the keys out of caleb's car seat, smiling at me. they had fallen under him when i put him in his car seat. i'm shocked. i had just looked all around the car seat multiple times before our prayer and hadn't found them and it took my two year old seconds to retrieve them after our prayer.

me, "mark, you found mommy's keys! thank you. did you know you helped heavenly father answer mommy's prayer."

mark, "yeah mommy. you pray and i knowed keys...cawub. i knowed keys, mommy."

i'm realizing the teaching experience was more for me than for him. he knew all along heavenly father would answer his prayer and he was more prepared to hear the answer then i was.