Praying with my son, Knox, before bed has become one of my favorite routines since he was just under two years old. Our nightly prayer roughly goes as follows. (In this order – and DO NOT get it out of order or Knox will let you know)

A pitchy rendition of “God our father” (we both sing a solo)
Various statements of thankfulness (thank you for this day, thank you for my joy, etc.)
A reciting of Matthew 22:37 and Proverbs 3:5
Lord, send your angels to guard us and protect us.
We lift up family, friends, church, school and those who don’t yet know Jesus.
At the end, I always ask, “Knox, who or what would you like to pray for?” Every single time without fail, Knox half smiles and says, “Chicken nuggets.”

(Note: I’m looking forward to when my youngest son, Eli, is old enough to join in on the prayers. I’m guessing that he’ll thank Jesus for dirt and milk though.)

If you’ve eaten a chicken nugget anywhere in America in the last few years, it has been prayed over and blessed; don’t worry! We’ve prayed about the quantity and quality of chicken nuggets. We’ve thanked God for every little taste and style of them. There isn’t a detail that hasn’t been prayed over. Each night I anticipate he’ll come up with some incredible prayer about unreached people groups, false teachers, or maybe even a prophetic word. Even though that’s a great thought, he’s still just truly appreciative of chicken nuggets. This pure, simple and repetitive gratitude has started to shape my prayers as well.

Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. Proverbs 4:23

Guarding your heart can be tough these days. We’ve seen fear, despair, tragedy, sorrow and confusion erode at our hearts like we’ve never seen before. I’m convinced that cultivating a heart of gratitude is one of the greatest defenses we have when guarding our heart. The enemy has a unique and deceptive way to tell us so many lies that seem to outweigh God’s goodness in our lives.

About a year ago before the pandemic, I began writing down five things I’m grateful for each day. I challenged myself not to repeat the things I listed day to day. (Disclaimer – I fell off somewhere in the fall and just picked back up in January) At first, the five things came so easy but embarrassingly, it became difficult to keep listing them each day. My mind would wonder, “Really Ryan? You can’t think of five things today? How ungrateful are you?” I then asked God to help me see the things in my life that I had overlooked and my mind immediately went to chicken nuggets. God showed me how I was overlooking some of the most simple and often monotonous blessings in my own life. My journal soon became filled with entries like

(1) Caught a half pound bass this morning
(2) Eli slept 12 hours last night!
(3) The JOY FM radio station
(4) Watching a 30 minute show and relaxing with my smoking hot wife, Erin tonight
(5) Saturday mornings watching cartoons with the boys

A knockout punch to the devil’s lies follows each simple blessing I list. It truly shapes how I view my day and the challenges that come with it.
Christian music artist, Josh Baldwin’s, song Evidence says,

In every season, from where I’m standing
I see the evidence of Your goodness All over my life, all over my life.

This song hits the nail on the head! God was showing me evidence. God’s detective work unveiled the evidence of His goodness that my enemy had tried to cover up.

Guarding your heart sometimes looks like recognizing God’s goodness ALL over our lives. This includes the large and small things. Next time you pray, ask God to help you to see every bit of His goodness!

Just fishing with my daddy,
Ryan Noelte