How do you teach your children to pray?
In general, I would say we don't teach prayer. We model it. We try to convey to our children that prayer is talking to God and that they can tell Him anything. We urge them to thank Him for what He has given and bring their problems and requests to Him.
We pray throughout the day-- school time, meal times, bed time-- and give ample opportunities for praying aloud. At meals, Brian leads the prayer, but if he is not home (which is often in the summer), I ask a different child to pray each night. They consider it a privilege to be chosen. In other situations, we'll start with one person praying and then go in order around the room, with each person contributing. Other times, Daddy will start the prayer and the children can pray in any order (with the option of staying silent).
Our goal is for praying to become a natural and necessary part of each child's day as they grow in their individual relationships with the Lord.
We pray throughout the day-- school time, meal times, bed time-- and give ample opportunities for praying aloud. At meals, Brian leads the prayer, but if he is not home (which is often in the summer), I ask a different child to pray each night. They consider it a privilege to be chosen. In other situations, we'll start with one person praying and then go in order around the room, with each person contributing. Other times, Daddy will start the prayer and the children can pray in any order (with the option of staying silent).
Our goal is for praying to become a natural and necessary part of each child's day as they grow in their individual relationships with the Lord.
How do you teach your children to pray? Let us know in the comments.
Also, if you have a question for a future "How Do You...?" post, share that in the comments, too, or send me an e-mail! I'd love to hear from you.
We also spend a lot of time modeling prayer. We do this at set times, but we try to convey the fact that we can talk to God at anytime. Some simple ways we do this is to pray for people involved in an accident as we drive past, to thank God for little blessings throughout the day, or to stop and pray for kind hearts when our tempers flair.
ReplyDeleteWe also have really enjoyed our family Prayer Pail that we use during our dinnertime prayer.
I've also pinned some ideas for teaching children to pray.