Teaching Your Children How to Pray
“Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” (Proverbs 22:6, English Standard Version)
Proverbs tells us that we have to train our children. They don’t come into this world knowing how to eat, talk or walk. Why would we expect them to know how to pray without teaching them? In the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), Jesus teaches his grown disciples how to pray. This isn’t something that we understand until we witness others doing it.
So how do we train our children for prayer? We model it!
Keep it Simple // Pray for the day together. Get the kids to say amen. Show them prayer postures.
Keep it Relevant // When praying with your children, pray about things they can comprehend. Asking for help in your parenting, in communication, the weather, safety, etc.
Make up an easy to recite prayer // One day it just happened. I’ll share our family prayer… “I pray my head be filled with wisdom, my heart with courage and love, my hands to kingdom service, and my life to God above. Amen.”
Encourage them to do it // Even when they pray for silly things like legos or little things, encourage them. Their prayers will grow as they mature in their faith.
Leave room for the Holy Spirit // It’s our nature to want to correct them. But there’s freedom in the way we pray. Allowing them to find their pace and way gives them room to grow and gain confidence.
It’s a special moment when you witness your child experience their first answered prayer. Giving them the confidence to ask God for help in times of trial allows you to train them for their future. Praying is hopefully not something they stop doing, so giving them the tools to learn and sharpen their ways is preparing them for life.
It’s also important to establish that sometimes our prayers are answered, just not in the way we would like. No is an answer. This can be explained by telling your children that God knows all, past, present and future, and will continue to do what is best, even when we don’t understand.
It’s not always easy, but it’s a practice that produces sweet, sweet fruit for a family. You’ll be beaming when your children ask to pray and have the confidence to do it with others.
