Mom Judy and I will be co-leading a short seminar session about teaching kids to pray this weekend. Though Judy has plenty of experience in this - I don't. =) I have been working with Luke on praying at mealtimes and bedtime - and he has just now started to branch away from his "Now I lay me down to sleep" prayer at night into a "Thank you Jesus" prayer. But that's about it as far as my experience in teaching children how to pray.
I believe in many ways that in teaching our children how to pray, we must lead by example (as I learned from my parents, grandparents, family and friends.) As I consider this, I wonder if I have been leading by example for Luke and Will. Sure they're young - but they do pick up on every little thing that happens. Luke misses nothing - he hears everything - observes everything - and is super perceptive in his surroundings. It makes me wonder if I have just assumed that spiritual matters are "above his head" at his age...when in fact - he is probably quite capable of understanding more then I give him credit for. I mean, I'm not talking about reading him Kierkegaard's theological ideas on the "Works of Love" or anything like that...but talking to him about knowing Jesus - learning about Him - reading bible stories out of his Children's Bible on a consistent basis...maybe he could begin to grasp that a bit?
During the Advent season, I tried to reiterate the nativity story and that Jesus is our Hope, Peace, Joy and Love. I was surprised at how quickly he learned and would repeat what I told him about Jesus. It's pretty cool to see how much their brains soak up! It has really made me think about the example I am to my children. Do they see me living out a life completely devoted to God? Do they see me turning to God in prayer in the good times and bad? I guess if this seminar session helps no one else - it's opened my eyes to my need to live my spiritual life out in view of my kiddos.
Anyway, the real reason I wrote this post was to see if any of you would be willing to share any sort of insight - I would love to hear it!
Did someone teach you how to pray? If so, who and how? Was it more by example or some other way?
Did you teach your children how to pray and if so, what did you do? Do you have any ideas on creative ways to teach children how to pray?
Any testimonies about people who were prayer warriors in your life or testimonies of how you've seen prayer work in the lives of children?
Any insight you may have would be very helpful to me as we prepare our notes and layout for this seminar session.
Thanks!!
4 comments:
I learned to pray through the family devotions that primarily my grandparents did with all of us kids before we went off to school. They would read through a devotional with us and then we would all get on our knees wherever we were sitting. My grandfather or grandmother always led the prayer and prayed for our safety or any other requests we had(it advanced as we got older) and then we would all end saying the Lord's prayer together. Sometimes my grandfather would take a break after each line of the Lord's prayer, and put it in layman's terms. It helped as we were young to know what those lines meant.
Mindy- I know we have never met, but I am Chris' cousin.
Being in a parsonage, prayer was just built in to everything we did throughout the day...my parents got that from THEIR parents, and I have passed that on to MY children.
We just pray about anything and everything all day long. If one of the kids gets hurt, we stop and pray about it. If I'm having trouble dealing with their behavior or their having trouble wiht a sibling, we stop and pray about it. Even something as trival as finding a parking space, we pray. I think it is because of this that my kids have become mighty prayer warriors! They are the warriors in my life. Their prayers are amazing to listen to, their hearts just burn for those that are hurting, and those that don't know Jesus. I can honestly say, that has nothing to do with me, but it comes from the relationship they have with God through prayer...they know they can pray about anything at anytime and God will listen! What did the Bible say?? Have faith like a child! :)
I would love to see your notes when you're done!!!
Hey Min,
I have to say that I don't think I really learned to pray from my parents. I've learned more from Mary Lou than from anyone else. She and some of the other ladies of the church would come in every other Monday and have a prayer time. Even though I had to work in the office I could sometimes hear them praying down the hall.
Then Mary Lou started an e-mail prayer chain and I was really touched by a request to pray for an unborn baby girl. I can't remember all the specifics but the baby's paternal grandparents were encouraging the mother to abort the baby because of a diagnoses. The mother refused and moved to TN to go to a special hospital. The doctors did a surgery on the baby's spine while it was still in the womb to correct some of the problems. Prayer made it so the baby was in the correct possition so the doctors didn't have to completely remove her from the womb and then put her back. 24 hours after the surgery they did a sonogram and the baby was moving her feet and toes. A few months and hundreds of prayers later Baby Addi was born with out a single sign of her previous diagnoses. She's still having many checkups and some issues have risen since her birth, but for the most part she is a healthy beautiful baby girl.
Cherry, I think Baby Addi's story was significant to a lot of people in our church. It was like every time we prayed, a new miracle occurred!
We never did the "now I lay me down to sleep" I think because I couldn't remember the words! Instead, we started right off the bat just praying for the regular things in a toddler's life (thanking Him for the day, helping him to be good). But one thing I wish we would have started earlier than now (although the kids are finally getting the hang of it) is praying for OTHERS needs as well as our own. Getting the focus off of US and what WE need. Knowing that there are others out there that are hurting and that THEIR prayer can make a difference.
We pray with each kid before bedtime, usually separately, unless we've had a family devotional time together. If, for some reason, we're busy, both kids will remind us that they haven't been prayed with. I think starting the habit young is so beneficial.
~Lorie
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