Family Resources

When Children Pray  by Cheri Fuller

 

MAKING THE CONTENT COUNT

 

What about the content of kids’ prayers?  Do we teach them exactly what to say?  Or ask them to repeat the same prayers over and over again?  In some cases, as in the Lord’s Prayer, recited prayers build security and stability.  They connect us to the past and remind us of whom we are as God’s children.  Prayer models also help kids learn to pray, giving them structure and motivation.  But prayer is also as expansive as the God to whom we speak, able to encompass our kids’ individuality.  From free-wheeling shouts to whispered petitions to unintelligible groans, God hears and receives our prayers.

 

As you try different prayer activities, you’ll find that some will work better than others for your individual children’s personalities and ages.  What’s important is to be open to variation instead of rotely saying the same words at the same time in the same way each day.  By staying flexible, you’ll instill excitement about how great God is and how creative He made us—so creative that we can enter His presence in many ways.  We can also be flexible to our kids’ changing needs when we pray as a family.  There may be some stages when a child is willing to pray aloud with the family, and other times when he prefers to pray silently.

 

PRAYER IDEAS WITH CHILDREN & YOUTH

 

Sports-fanatic kids can pray for strength and good sportsmanship.  They can thank God for a “win” or for the chance to compete.

 

Musical children can sing their prayers.  They can write original song-prayers or set any of the biblical psalms to a new melody and sing them to God.

 

 

Visual kids can express prayers through drawings.  Perhaps a picture of someone who needs God’s help or something they want to tell God.

 

 

Verbal youth  love praying Korean style, all aloud at the same time.

 

 

Mover kids can rejoice in spontaneous prayers and thanksgivings, sentence prayers aloud in the car and short, “popcorn prayers” aimed toward heaven.  Toss a ball and say a prayer with each catch.

 

 

Idea-oriented youth may communicate with God more effectively by writing their prayers in a journal.  A different prayer theme for each day of the week.

 

 

Artistic types enjoy creating devices to help them pray.  A prayer chain with a different visual reminder on each link is an idea.

 

Tune in next month for how to bless your children through prayer.

Cloud & Townsend Solutions for Life

Find helpful information on subjects such as:  relationships; goals & successes; emotional struggles; leadership; dating; spiritual life; parenting, and marriage from two of today’s foremost Christian psychologists, Henry Cloud and John Townsend.