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Kids Boredom Busters
10 Ways to Teach Your Child to Pray
“Dear Jesus, I thank you for today and I pray we have a good day tomorrow. I thank you for my friends and my family, and I pray we all have a good day tomorrow, Amen.”
Rinse and Repeat.
Does it ever feel like your kids are just reciting a learned prayer over and over again, and not really understanding what they are praying? A short bedtime prayer that they pray out loud while you sit with them before their good night kiss?
Or maybe you have not yet started saying prayers with you children and you would like to know where to start?
Do you have questions like, “How to Pray?” and “What to Pray?”
One of the most important jobs we have as parents is to teach our children to pray. We want them to have a joyful and lasting relationship with Christ, and be able to talk to Him anytime, anywhere and about anything.
For example, during his nightly prayers, Jason, age 5, pleaded with Jesus to help him be able to put his face in the water the next day during swimming lessons. Up to that point he had been terrified of doing so.
Since swimming classes were part of the after-school program, his parents wouldn't be there during the lesson. When his mom picked him up, he jumped in the car and excitedly said, "Let's hurry and get home so I can tell Jesus how I put my face in the water."
His mum grinned and responded, "Let's tell him right now."
Helping Your Child Learn to Pray
1 – What is Prayer?
Firstly, we need to teach our children what prayer is. It is a conversation with God just like we have a conversation with a friend.
Sometimes kids can get confused with this because adults can pray using big words and a different tone than when we are having a conversation with a friend. It is important to have a respectful tone when talking to God, but the conversation need to be filled with flowery words that sometimes even we do not understand.
You can read more about Prayer being a conversation with God here.
2 – Model Prayer for Your Children
Secondly, we must show them how to pray.
Express gratitude before each meal is a great example of this. Give thanks for the meal and for anyone who had anything to do with bringing the meal to the table. Mention the cook and those who prepared the table.
You can also go around the table and share something that happened that day for which each person is thankful.
3 – Don’t Pray ONLY at Certain Times
It is very tempting to fall into the rut of only praying at certain times, such as before eating, or before bed. Those are both great times to pray, don’t get me wrong, but sometimes we limit prayer to only a couple of times a day.
When we do that, it only reinforces the WRONG idea that prayer is a ritual, and only for certain times or in certain circumstances.
4 - Be with Them to End Each Day with Prayer
Fourthly, being with them during the last few minutes of the day, in the quiet and the still you can guide them in ways to pray. In the quiet, we can teach our children to give thanks for what they're learning, the time they have to play, and the people in their lives. We can also model this by sharing what we are thankful for.
This can also be a time to discuss and then pray about what they might need help with. This can be school work, a teacher or peer they're having difficulty with, or putting their face in the water even when afraid.
During this time, we can also think about who they want to pray for. Once children get the hang of this, you'll hear them ask for blessings and help for parents, grandparents, friends, cats, dogs, the insect the caught that afternoon, and almost anyone.
Praying for forgiveness can also be a good thing to include in nighttime prayers. This does not have to be complicated or long, a simple, "Jesus, please forgive me for being mean to my sister" is the beginning of asking for forgiveness.
And, as difficult as it may be for us, we can use those occasions which occur to show them how to do this by praying, "Jesus, please forgive me for losing my temper with my children."
5 - Pray with Them for Healing
Next, we can take a few minutes any time of the day to pray for their healing. We all know that bumps, bruises, and hurt feelings occur throughout the day for our children. Sometime these are self-inflicted and sometimes inflicted by siblings or friends. We can teach them to ask God to heal them of these hurts.
6 - Bless Them Before they Leave for Their Day
When you take a minute to send your child off to school with a blessing, and then end the day with night prayers, you demonstrate how God is with them all day, every day.
7 – Teach Them HOW to Pray, NOT What to Pray
It can be beneficial to learn certain prayers, but we do not want our children to think that their prayers need to be scripted to be heard by God.
Prayer comes from our heart and our head, it is expressing to God what we think and feel. The Lord’s Prayer is a good example of how to pray. It is how Jesus has instructed us to include praise, petition and protection.
For a helpful article on how The Lord’s Prayer teaches us how to pray visit this article: How The Lord’s Prayer Teaches Us to Pray
8 – One Prayer to Learn by Heart
The Lord’s Prayer is one that we say often in church, so many of us know this off by heart. Some might say ‘sins’ while others say ‘trespasses’, but essentially we are all joining together in this prayer that Jesus taught.
Teaching our children this from a young age, will give them the basic blueprint of prayer, always there, hidden in their heart and mind.
9 – Acknowledge and Celebrate God’s Answers to Prayers
When we have answered prayer, whether we like/understand the answer or not, it is important to acknowledge God’s faithfulness and power. Some creative ways to celebrate and acknowledge God’s answers include:
- Painting a colourful rock, writing the answered prayer on it, and keeping them in a jar. Then each month, or each New Year, read through them as a family and praise God for his protection and provision.
- Writing the answered prayer on a strip of coloured paper and make a paper chain that grows over time.
- Keeping a Prayer Diary/Journal and highlighting God’s Answers in bright pink or green or yellow.
Here is a story of one family’s celebration about answered prayer (Spoiler: it involves dancing!). Read about it here.
10 – Get Crafty with your Kids
Finally, getting crafty with our children can really help them get drawn into prayer.
Doing creative prayer activities, using bright colours, making a mess with glitter and glue, creating something that is uniquely theirs, all create lasting memories in our children.
Here are two great sites that give you a list of crafts about prayer, that you can do with your children.
Creative Ideas Teaching Kids Prayer
And check out these 21 Bible Verses on Prayer to inspire and encourage you.
Hi, I'm Patricia
I'm a mother of 2 daughters and have been married to my husband for 16 years. I am a trained teacher, minister and stay at home mum (well, that last one didn't come with much training to be honest!)
I have a mild indoor plant adiction, an irrational love for my chickens and a frustrating relationship with my vegetable garden.
I create resources for Christian Parents to use in their home to build strong relations with each other and with the Lord.
This includes
- Bible Studies
- Journals
- Prayer Dianries
- Bible Vere Memory Work
- Children's Activites
and more!
You can checkout our Free resources here or find out more about our membership here.
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