My idea of prayer became completely turned upside down after our first miscarriage. When you believe with all your heart for something you know God has ordained for you to do and you have people proclaiming life over your body and the tiny person occupying it, only to lose that life. . .well, it’ll change the way you view prayer for sure.
Perhaps it’s the reality of being an adult and dealing with adult things but prayer is not nearly as simple as I once thought it was. If we grew up in the church, we were taught from the beginning to “ask and it will be given to you” and to “pray in faith, without doubting.” And our young minds took those instructions literally, believing without a doubt that what we asked would come to pass. Oh the beauty of childlike faith.
And then we grew and we realized that things don’t always turn out the way we want. We learned that his ways are higher than ours and we began to pray, “thy will be done.” I don’t know about you but that shift rocked my world. I can remember crying out to God after losing our first baby {never imagining we’d go on to lose 3 more}, “What’s the point? Why do we pray God if you are going to do what you are going to do anyway?”
After exposing my honest heart before the Father, he began a work in me that has since defined my faith. Through the Word and a few wise writings on prayer, he showed me his true purpose for our conversations with him. He led me on a journey of discovery that has completely changed the way I view him and his response to our requests. More importantly, he revealed to me his heart for communicating with his children.
I don’t think it’s a mistake to allow our children to believe they can ask anything in his name and receive it. That childlike faith is foundational to our relationship with God. But we can lead our children on a journey of prayer that understands, even at a young age, prayer is not only about asking and receiving. It’s about so much more than that. If our children come to understand the beauty of conversational prayer early on, the roots of their faith relationships will be so strong.
What to share with your child about prayer:
Prayer is our way of talking to God. God is always available to listen to what we have to share with him. Through our prayers we can thank him for the wonderful blessings he has given us and we can ask him for the things we need or for things our loved ones need. The Bible tells us to believe that God will meet our needs – things like food and clothing or healing for sickness. We can also pray to God when we are sad, asking him to help us feel better. We can tell him about hard days at school or with friends. He cares about every little detail of our lives. Because God knows us and loves us so much, we can trust that he will take care of us, even if his way of doing so looks different than we would like. We can always trust God to do what’s best for us. Although we can ask God for things we need when we pray to him, he also just wants us to talk with him and share with him, just like we do with each other. It’s important to have conversations with God every day so we can grow closer to him.
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6
Ideas for Discussion:
1. Just as we sit together at the dinner table as a family and talk about our day, prayer is our way to sit and talk with God whenever we want to. God longs for us to come to him in prayer. He wants to have conversations with us daily. Prayer does not need to be done a certain way. Prayer is simply sharing with God what is on our heart.
2. When we pray, we should start by thanking God for the blessings he has given us. Our home, our family, the clothes we wear, the toys we enjoy. Thank God for his great love and all he has given us. Then, we can honestly share our needs from a thankful heart.
3. Sometimes God does not answer our prayers exactly the way we want him to. We may not always understand how or why God does what he does but we can trust that he loves us and knows what’s best for us. The more we grow in relationship with God through talking to him in prayer, the more we will trust him to help us and to help those we love.
4. It is important to pray for others when we talk with God. One of the ways we show love to others is by praying with them and for them, believing that God will meet their need. We can offer to pray for friends who may be sad or hurt. Practice saying a short prayer for others who are sick or in need.
Ideas for Activity:
1. Practice praying together with your child. Encourage them to pray out loud. Share that the more we talk to God, the more comfortable we will get having conversations with him.
2. Keep a prayer list in the heart of your home. Ask your kids if they have friends or loved ones with needs they want to write on the list. Explain to them that having the list hanging where they can see it will remind them to pray regularly for those needs.
3. Go on a family prayer walk. Walk down your street and through your neighborhood praying for neighbors, schools and city leaders. Talk with your kids as you walk about why it’s important to pray for others, even those we do not know personally.
3 Truths to Share With Your Child about Prayer:
1. God is always available to listen when we want to talk with him through prayer.
2. God loves us deeply and can be trusted to do what’s best for us in every situation.
3. When we talk with God regularly in prayer, our relationship with him with grow.
Prayer:
Say the Lord’s prayer {Matthew 6:9-13} together, written below in words a child can understand.
More than any conversation we have with our children or explanation we offer, modeling prayer for our kids is the most powerful way to nurture their own prayer life. Let them see you and hear you talking with God. Share your struggle to sometimes understand his answers and be willing to say, “I don’t know.” The more real we are in front of our children about our own prayer life, the more real theirs will become.
How are you teaching your children about prayer?
This post is part of our #write31days series on Family Faith-Building. Read more posts about starting important conversations of faith in your home >> 31 Days of Family Faith-Building
Jessica, that is such a beautiful kids version of the Lord’s Prayer. I will print it out for my kids and other mums at church. Thank you.