Parental Involvment

LESSON FOUR

When You Pray

Written by Joanne Rutis

The subject for this lesson is teaching children how to pray.

As small children many of us learned a little prayer, "Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take. If I should live another day, I pray the Lord to guide my way." My mother taught me that prayer when I was very young. At first she would say it with me, then I would say it on my own while she listened. Then she stopped listening to me, assuming that I could say my prayers on my own.

Over the years I added more onto the end of that childish little sing song chant, but basically it remained the foundation of my prayers for many years to come.

As I matured and learned more about God and His truth I realized that repeating cute little verses wasn't the best way to pray. In fact, the bible clearly tells us to avoid vain repetition. (Matt. 6:7)

How then should young people pray?

Small children, of course, don't need to spend nearly as much time in prayer as their father and mothers do. A parent can easily help them by suggesting simple things to thank God for and pray about. But what of the older children? Those who are developing into their own person.

When our youngsters were old enough I wrote up a list of suggested prayer topics, using what is refereed to as 'the Lord's Prayer' as an outline. It helped them expand their prayer-time and gave them the extra help they needed in learning HOW to talk to God in a more 'grown up' fashion.

The outline was broken up into what I saw as the main thrust of Jesus' instruction. Actually I found the outline useful too on those occasional days when my prayers needed a jump start.

I hope you and your little ones will benefit from this outline as my children and I did.

Joanne Rutis

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