A couple of weeks ago, I gathered our congregation’s fourth and fifth graders to compose prayers of the people for our upcoming Christmas program.

I had prepared prompts on giant Post-It notes on the wall. The first note had the word “Thanks,” and I asked them to share aloud what they would lift up in a prayer of gratitude.

The youth added one thing after another until our paper was full of thankfulness. They shared thanks for…being healthy, everybody in theroom, food on the table, especially tacos, family, friends, church, school, shelter, people to trust, candy, TV, the internet, animals and pets, nature, and sports and activities.

I was inspired by how easily they burst forth with gratitude. It’s often said young people don’t notice all that they have. Turns out they do.

Down the line we went, creating prayer petitions in their voices. We filled pages with hopes and requests for others, for us, and for creation. The last prompt was the one I thought would be the most difficult: “Praise.” I explained it like this, “We can pray to God by simply sharing the good things about God that we love.”

I paused, thinking of another way to describe this hard-to- grasp concept, when someone chimed in, “That God cares about us and loves us.”

Smiling, I encouraged this young person, “Yes, just like that.” And the next young person suggested, “That God is thoughtful and generous.”

I wrote as fast as I could as the praise kept coming. “We praise God for giving us life.” “For guiding us on the way.” “For forgiveness.” “For being there for us when we need You.”

I’d been making sure that all of the young people had a chance to add something to the prayers. There was one young man who had raised his hand several times, but when he was called on he had forgotten what he was going to say.

I had a feeling he genuinely forgot once or twice, but by the third time this had become a bit of a schtick. With space on this last page for just one more addition, this young man raised his hand.

I hesitated before calling on him, imagining what he was about to say. Just as I suspected, when I prompted him to share, he sighed in exasperation and said, “I forgot!”

Someone nearby suggested, “Good thing God never forgets us.” I wrote it on the page, “God never forgets us.” This young man beamed and exclaimed, “See, I did add something!”

When it comes to voicing our thanks and praise to God, all of us can add something. In this season of gratitude, when you go to pray, may you be filled with the exuberance of a room full of fourth and fifth graders who had no idea the power they had to create prayers to speak for the people.