Parable of the Purple Bunny and Other Stories Starring Cayden

Cayden has done some pretty amazing things in the last week or so. Easter Sunday was our Fast Sunday because of Conference. We were sitting on out bench and Cayden was sitting by Don who was sitting by me. He leans over and says to me
Cayden "Mom, you go up there."
Mom "Go up where?"
Cayden 'Go up and bear your testimony.'
Mom "Why?"
Cayden "You have a testimony."
Well how do you not go after that? I thought that was pretty sweet!

This Sunday morning we had another experience with him. He had gotten 2 of those bendy plastic rabbit toys at school and one of them was missing. He had been playing with them all week and so he was looking all over the place trying to find the purple one. He even brought in a book that was purple so that he could make sure that I knew what color we were looking for. He was outside for 20 minutes, then he was under beds, upstairs, looking in the bathtubs etc. He was pretty sure they were around the trampoline but we looked 3 times and they weren't there. I was trying to get ready for church and had wet hair so I told him we would find it after I got ready for church. A few minutes later he comes in with Connor and tells me that he said a prayer to find his toy. So now what? Do I have enough faith to believe that the Lord will help this little boy find a silly plastic toy? When he came in and told me that he said a prayer he said "Ok mom, go outside." I said "Sweetie I don't think that they are out there because we already looked." He said "But I said a prayer!" quite emphatically! I said I know honey and we will find them." But he just knew that they were outside and that because he said his prayer they would be found. I still was not ready for church but we went back outside. They were still not there. At first we thought that they may have been run over by the lawn mower but as there were no body parts laying around the backyard we had to keep looking. If you know how my house works, it is usually me who does the locating of missing shoes, lunchboxes, Ipods, plastic bunnies etc. I knew that I had to help look and that it may be that the spirit would tell me where those toys were. Sure enough-after I was finally ready and I went to help him look-and get him dressed for church-the boys were looking in different places that I told them to look and then I remembered that they had all been to Overton in the Suburban and that was the last that I had seen the runaway rabbit. I said to Caleb-go look in the Suburban. Rabbit Found! We said a prayer thanking Heavenly Father for helping us find them and I thanked him in my heart for answering a sweet little boy's prayer. I'm sure that there were bigger and more important prayers being said that day and the missing bunny was not one of the top ten pressing matters at the moment but it was important to this little boy and important to his mom that his prayer was answered! I did have the faith to believe that even if that rabbit had been chopped up by the lawn mower, Heavenly Father could put it back together for my child. I even told Don that while I was rushing to get ready for church so that bunny hunt could start in earnest. I am so grateful for these sweet learning and humbling moments where the spirit testifies of the truth and gladdens my heart.

One more-Tonight Cayden said the whole dinner prayer on his own from start to finish. He has never wanted to say it all by himself and so he says "Dear Heavenly Father, and then a little quieter to me with one eye open he'll say "Help me" then I will say something and he will repeat it after me. If I pause at all he will say "help me". Tonight we told him that he could do it all by himself and that he knew what to say. It was such a sweet prayer. He thanked Heavenly Father that dad can work and that mom can make us dinner. He was so proud of himself and we were too. It is a huge milestone that he will do it on his own. We knew that he could and tried to get him to before but he just never would. He always says We thank thee "dor" this "dood"-because he has such a hard time with certain letters. I am so glad that he is progressing. It takes him much longer to do certain things but he is doing them-we just have to give him the time that he needs. He wanted to say all the prayers the rest of the night! Silly Boy! These are the reasons I am a mom and I have not run screaming off into the desert.