I was so proud at my youngest daughter’s confirmation. The thing that really stood out to me was that the Pastor said he knew our family a long time and what stood out to him was that all 3 of our daughters knew how to pray. Wow, I was surprised. He said we as parents taught them well. I am not great or comfortable with praying in public or leading prayer but I know who God is.
I spent my entire life praying or talking to God in my head. I really do not have a formula but this is how I encouraged my kids to pray.
1 – Start Early and Simply
First, when they were very young, we did a fill in the blank prayers. I would ask what are you thankful for? Gratitude teaches…. Then I would say what or who do you want to pray for, who needs God? They always picked such amazing things. They taught me a lot about compassion and patience. It was truly eye opening. We had pray as 1 of their tasks on their chore chart. Their first chore chart was just a series of pictures as they were too young to read.
2 – Teach What and Why We Pray
Help kids understand that prayer is our way of talking with God. Just like we talk with our family and friends, we can talk to God.
As they grew up a bit, in addition to evening prayers they lead prayers at family dinner time. We started with a prayer cube that they could roll and read the prayer. This allowed them to pray in front of others without the stress of thinking what to say. It is important to start and end your days with God. It doesn’t have to be anything formal.
3 – Teach that Prayer is not a Ritual it is about spending time with God!
Now they are teenagers and I often ask if they still pray. They all do. We pray as a family at dinner which is hectic and infrequent now that they are so busy. When we do have that precious time, we pray in a take turn manner. The kids love it as we each have an opportunity to pray for something close to each of us. Sometimes we say thank you, other times we bring a concern up. It is an eye-opening time of sharing.
4 – Help Them Understand the Power of Prayer
Tell them anecdotes about how God has answered prayer in your own life. Keep a log of family prayer requests and write down how they were answered. We have a prayer jar that we drop prayers into over time and at Thanksgiving we read the prayers and discuss how they were answered. Life hits us with concerns and I ask them to pray for people I know and events that need prayers. I hope that they seek and know God. Prayer does that. It builds your relationship with God.
Such good advice!