Medical researchers have discovered that people with a full robust dynamic prayer and faith life have the healthiest brains and therefore healthier lives. This so excites me because that means God designed us to be in communion with him daily.
I’ve said for years that Christians are excellent at corporal prayer. When we are together, we can pray to the heavens, but as a church at large, we don’t do a good job on teaching ourselves to have a real deep prayer practice outside of church. Yes! There are many of us now who have discovered the power of prayer. Maybe it was, The War Room, that got you motivated or maybe it was Bible Study, but what you probably missed was learning how to deeply and emotionally connect with God as a child. It wasn’t your parents fault or your Sunday School teacher, as we move through modern discipleship where so many of us are intentionally trying to walk with Jesus, the materials available to help build a meaningful pray life weren’t available while we were growing up.
Thankfully, today not only is there an explosion of materials to teach us how to pray, how to walk with Christ, how to practice our discipleship life as adults but also there are many people who are working on quality meaningful materials to teach our kids. I resonate so much with Andy Stanley of North Point Ministries, who says North Point’s goal is to anchor Jesus so tightly into your child’s heart that when trials come they can rely on that anchor.
Just like everything else you must work on it. It must be a part of your kid’s daily life. I always tell the children in my life that practice makes perfect. What’s more important than perfecting and practicing prayer in a child’s life?
Thankfully, God always provides the perfect connection at the perfect time. EEN Moms got introduced to SureFire Prayer recently. As their website shares, SureFire Prayer equips and trains families to practically bring biblical truth and prayer back into everyday life. They also have a full program of incorporating prayer into your life regardless of the stage of life you are in.
We received the Little Flames guide on how to pray with preschoolers. This guide teaches the strategy to teach preschoolers ages 3 to 5. Then you can create the prayers that make sense to your family or the group you’re working with. Whether, it’s Sunday School or a MOPs group or another group you are involved in, this is what we created based on the Little Flames guide to teach little ones to pray about God’s creation.
Praying for God’s creation
Our intent for this prayer time is to teach children to thank God for all the gifts he has given us in creation. That gratitude starts with the most important part of God’s creation in your child’s life…his or her family. Center yourself with prayer before you begin with the kids. Finally, it is very important to understand we are not encouraging nature over God. Our intention is to teach children that everything is a gift from God and therefore we should be grateful, treat it with honor and respect, and thank God for it.
Greet Time
This is a time to prepare your child to pray. Think of it as a centering or focusing time. During the week have your child choose three to five things in nature to pray about. It can be rocks, sticks, flowers or even your pet. If you are a brave Mom, it could include things like bugs and reptiles. Make sure they don’t harm the animals and that they are returned or maybe you just take a picture on your phone. If you have multiple children, you might want to have them each pick one thing. Have the children place the items in the center of the gathering.
Group Time
Have a scripture about how God wants to us to care for all the things he made. (Click here for our list of Bible verses.) There is a Green Bible that highlights all the ways God calls us to care for creation in the Bible in green ink. This is a great resource and it is amazing how much green ink is in this version of the Bible.
Spend 10 to 15 minutes discussing with your preschooler or children. Ask why they think the items in front of them are important to God. Encourage them to think about how the item and the Bible Scripture go together. Each child should share and not be interrupted. This teaches values of opinions of all who are gathered.
Ask the children if there is anything they want to have as a prayer request. Start off the prayer whether you or the child leads, being thankful for each other and naming each member of the family. Then the prayer can lead into the items and prayer requests.
Go Deeper
Close with a song and listening to your child for what they learned. Ask your child to remember to thank God for everything and to listen for God.
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