A particular aspect of discipling primary school aged kids is getting them engaged in prayer.
When they first started talking, I found that they loved to have a go at praying, trotting out these long itineraries of the day to thank God for, or dramatis personae of people to pray blessing upon.
I'm now finding our older kids are a bit less keen on prayer. They rarely prayer at the dinner table when asked. And so the parents are leading all the prayers.
I am worried they are not learning how to pray and not being nudged to draw near to their heavenly Father. I'm concerned that the prayers quickly become merely thanksgiving, rather than repentance and especially request. I also worry that we lose sight of the bigger picture of what to pray for.
So here are some things I'll be trying out over the next few months:
- Having a lucky dip prayer box, with pen and paper. As prayer points come up during the – family needs, world needs, church needs – we can jot it down and put it in the box. Then kids can have a go and picking out a prayer point at dinner time.
- Another variation some friends of mine use: they have a weekly calendar, with each day having a photo of a person to pray for (for their youngest kid) and then a few other prayer points to suggest for the kids to pray about. This is all done in a crafty-pop-up-book sort of way. Sounds nice if you have the power of craft within you.
- Deliberately have a habit of praying individually for each child at bed time. This is quite a nice thing, I think, for me to do as the head of the family, to prayer for each child. A nice bed-time routine.
