Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Family Health - Teaching Our Children To Pray

“Now I lay me down to sleep” and “God is great, God is good, let us thank Him for this food.” Unfortunately, all too often those two simple children’s prayers are the extent of our teaching our children how to pray. Then as they grow older we find ourselves wondering why prayer is not a vital part of our children’s lives.

Children imitate what they see modeled, and we need to be an example of praying adults for our children. If they are to become children, and later men and women, who know the importance of prayer and make prayer a daily practice in their lives, then as their parents and grandparents we need to be setting the example. How can we do this? continue to TheLife.com

8 comments:

Missy said...

I've never done those prayers with my kids. It's funny because when I was the preschool director at church and both of my kids where in there, a kid would pray for snack and they would do one of those "god is great" prayers...my kids would look at me like "what are they doing?"
Some of the greatest moments of my life have been listening to my kids heart felt prayers.
I agree, if they aren't taught to pray now, what will they do when they are older.

luvmy4sons said...

Amen. Good advice!

Sharon said...

Hey,Hey,
God Bless you my sister in Christ!!
Yes I have to agree with you, those were the prayers I was also taught as a child, and we are the examples for our children. It's just like food I saw my mom didn't like skin on her chicken, so in turn I didn't want skin on my chicken and to this day, I still don't want skin on my chicken. We learn from our parents. But we also learn from other adults as children not just our parents, I was raised Catholic, but they never taught us no other prayers except the ones my mom taught us.

But what a wonderful reminder for us all, to be aware of the children and what they see in us and hear from us, that they are watching and listening to our every moves.

Thank you for visiting me today, it such a humble experience when you do. I thought I had drafted that, I did not realize I had posted, hahaha I added to the beginning to which I felt was important to say. So maybe if you have time you can come back and visit.
thanks for your great post & reminder
Huggsss to you
Sharon

Aunt Angie said...

I know that teaching our babies to pray from the BEGINNING is the MOST important---and by example!
Your blog is such a blessing!

Blog is no more said...

I agree, prayers are so important. My 11 year old son prays every night with me. It is great to hear him pray for people in our church, and the "missionaries and troops overseas". Makes this mama's heart sing!!

Marsha said...

Great article on prayer. I'll never forget the shocked look on my face this summer when I asked one of my new at risk girls if she'd like to pray for lunch. She agreed and started the "God is great..." 'blessing'. I looked up in disbelief to see 3 16 year old girls 'chanting' this prayer. We've since talked about prayer and what it means to 'bless' the food.

Anonymous said...

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bp said...

Excellent point. I always enjoy hearing Caleb's prayers. I've found it is a good way to hear what has touched his heart, made him happy/sad, etc. I am going to look at the link next.