One of the most important jobs you have as a parent is to teach your children to pray. You want them to have a joyful and easy relationship with Jesus. You want them to be able to talk to Jesus about anything. Here are 7 Ways to Teach Your Children to Pray.
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Helping Your Child Learn to Pray
You teach your child this important skill through your own example!
Let’s look at these important steps:
Show them how you pray.
They won’t know how important prayer is if you don’t show them. Show them how to integrate prayer throughout their day.
Express gratitude before each meal. 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.
Be with them to end each day with prayer. During this special time, guide them in ways to pray.
Teach them to give thanks for what they’re learning, the time they have to play, and the people in their lives. Share what you are thankful for.
Model for them your own prayers until they get the understand of what they need to be praying for.
Who do they want to pray for? Once your children get the hang of this, it will be such a blessing to hear them praying and asking for prayer for family and friends. They will even pray for family pets!
Pray with them for healing.
Bumps, bruises, and hurt feelings occur throughout the day and life. Teach them to ask God to heal them of these hurts.
Pray for forgiveness.
During night prayers, teach your children how to ask God for forgiveness. Let them know that it’s okay to be angry or sad and to express emotions, but we must ask God and each other for forgiveness.
It’s not a time for shame or embarrassment. It’s as simple as saying, “Jesus, please forgive me for being mean to my sister or friend.”.
As hard as it might be, this is a very teachable moment for you as a parent. Show your children how to pray this prayer by praying, “Jesus, please forgive me for losing my temper today with my children.”
Teach them short prayers.
You can google short prayers and have many options. These are perfect to say in the car on the way to the store or the co-op meeting. You can also use this time to practice bible verses.
Read them children’s books about prayer.
There are so many books about prayer for children. Once again, Google is your friend. Here is a really good one. I have the Power of a Praying Parent and the Power of a Praying Grandparent, by the same author.
Bless them before they leave the house.
When you take time to bless and pray for your children before they leave the house, you are telling them that God is with them all day, every day. This will instill a life long trust that God is always with them.
Praying will benefit your childrne for the rest of their lives. Teaching them to pray will coem wasy to you if you have an active prayer life yourself. Use these ideas to get you going. Your children will pick up on praying as a regular part of their daily routines and it will become as natural as breathing.