Children Learn To Pray
Oct 3rd, 2008 by Zach Allred
Teaching children to pray can be accomplished with consistent application of 5 simple techniques.
1. Are you seen praying? Your children will learn to praying and will see the importance of praying when they see you praying. Leave your door open when you pray so your children will see your example.
2. Use prayer to find lost toys. This is one of my personal favorites. Toys such as stuffed animals and such are so precious to children. As a parent you know that the toy is somewhere but if you stop and say “Let’s say a prayer first” and then start looking your child will believe that it is Father in Heaven who found the toy for them. Who is to say that it wasn’t?
3. Rituals. My wife tells our children to always say their prayers when ever they wake up and go to bed. Also at meal times a prayer is said over the food. This very quickly becomes habit forming.
4. Teach the power of personal prayer. Accepting Jesus Christ into our lives is a very powerful experience and it comes through personal prayer. Our children can tell God anything and this is an important step.
5. Stage Fright. Do you ever feel nervous praying in public? Sometimes, just praying in front of my family makes me nervous. I try to remember though, that this is helping my children when they hear me pray.
6. Flexibility. Teach your children that a short prayer is more important than no prayer at all. If you are hurrying out the door and are loading up in the car and you have forgotten morning prayers, at least have one of the children say a prayer while you are driving.
Families that pray together will stay together as the saying goes. Prayer teaches reverence and humility. When children pray for lost toys and other things it develops faith at a very early age.
