I’ve continued to pour into him what I can and prayed for
God to come and fill in the missing pieces. In his own way, Maddox is coming to
know what prayer is. We pray before meals and at bedtime and recently I have
started laying hands on and praying over the kids before they go to school. In these
instances the prayers are basically the same and I usually kneel down before
him and look him in the eye while I pray and he will say “amen” when I am
finished.
A lot of Maddox’s speech is echolalic, meaning that it is
scripted or copied words and phrases. Much of the time he will copy what is said
without having an understanding of what it means. He is simply echoing what he
hears. I have always felt that his “amen” has been a scripted response until
last night.
Jason and I have recently started an evening devotion time
with Mia. Maddox was seemingly oblivious to what we were doing and was running
around the living room playing while we talked. When we finished our story, we
moved on to prayer. Mia first, Jason next and finally, myself. With my head
bowed and eyes closed, I had not noticed Maddox had silently come to stand next
to me while I prayed until I felt his little hand on my arm and heard his
little voice whisper “amen”. My head shot up and I met his gaze and he smiled
and started jumping up and down saying “amen” over and over and over.
He knew I was praying! And he wanted me to know that he
understood what we were doing! In a totally different situation and with different words than what he
was used to hearing, he understood and recognized that his mama was praying!!! Thank you God for answering the prayers dear
to a mother’s heart. I see the missing pieces starting to fall into place.
