Teaching Children to Pray (Several Phases)

Teaching children to pray and to make prayer apart of their lives cannot be started too early! A daily devotional can be a difficult task for an adult to establish, but much easier for children. I have broken down this topic into several phases, each containing an object for the lesson.

Phase I - Childlike Faith

This first phase can be taught to children as soon as they are able to lose items and feel the distress associated with losing them.

Object: The object for this phase is actually a teachable moment when your child loses something that should be recovered.

When the child comes to you about the lost item, immediately respond by telling them to ask God to show them where the item is. Explain that God knows everything, sees everything, and care about them enough to care about even this lost item.

Note: If you are not quite sure God cares about lost items, try it yourself, first. When He answers miraculously, you will have your proof!

After they pray, tell them to pause and listen for a few moments (listen with them) or spend some quiet time listening to where God says to look. (This may take practice - after all, the key to listening to God is practice.)

If an answer doesn't come right away, tell them to go about their business, but keep sensitive to strange/silly ideas of where to look or go or things to do. Explain that these are often God prompting us to go down a path to find the lost item(s).

Lesson: When the item is found, take a moment to discuss the entire situation and make sure they understand how God led them to the lost item(s). This re-cap will teach them which inner voice is their own and which is God's voice. This listening and obeying is a habit that they will find crucial as they begin to grow up. Your proactive example will teach them to direct their requests to God, first. It will also teach them to rely on God's direction and discern what God's voice is saying to them.

Final Note: Depending on the maturity of your child, you may have to discuss what God's voice sounds like, what God will and won't tell us to do (such as to disobey our parents, etc.).

Lesson: God's Attention to the Unseen

The purpose of this lesson is to teach the concept that God sees the unseen and appreciates the unappreciated. It also teaches that God created things in creation for us to enjoy and to point us to enjoying Him. As a by-product, it also leaves an impression that God sees the good and bad that go unseen by others.

Object: Medium to large leaf from a tree


On a walk or after playing with your children in the backyard, take a moment (a quiet one, free from distractions) to teach them this quick, simple lesson about God and His attention to what goes unnoticed, unseen, or unappreciated by us.

Take a medium to large leaf from a tree and pass it around, face up. Ask your children if they have ever walked on leaves. Ask them if they have stopped to look at each one. (Of course, the answer is that they have walked on them without noticing or appreciating them.)

Explain that we all do this – we all take things for granted and forget to appreciate them.

Emphasize that God is different! He notices each leaf and He designed it before it grew on the tree.

Now show them the back of the leaf. Point out the beautiful, intricate design of the veins of the leaf. Hold it up to the light. Spend time talking with them about how detailed it is – far more detailed then the prettiest things humans can make.

Then emphasize how God cares about the back of the leaves – the very ones we walk on without noticing or appreciating. He cared about them so much that He purposely hid the prettiest part on the hidden side of the leaf – like a jewel to be found!

End the lesson time with the following:

• The Bible teaches that creation displays God’s glorious nature for us to see – if we are willing to stop and see. He put them there, hoping we would stop and enjoy them. He does this because He loves us.
• Most of the time, these are simple things and taken for granted. But God sees the unseen and unappreciated. He appreciates them – actually, He revels in them!
• He sees what we do – the good and the bad. He appreciates the good things we do, even if no one else does. He enjoys even the simple things we do for others. (Matt. 6:5-7)
• And, He loves it when we stop and appreciate the good things others have done or made – even the backs of leaves!

Expanding Our Children's Capacity for God

This is the first lesson I created. It is more for the parents, than it is for the children. I recommend reading this lesson first, since it is the basis for all other lessons.

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I have heard it said that it is impractical for Christians to live in God's presence, all day, every day. I have heard sayings such as "Don't be so heavenly-minded that you are no earthly good." I find these directions disturbing. They are not what I want my children to learn.

A. W. Tozer talks about how Satan wants us to separate our lives into two parts: Religious Duties and The Rest of Our Life. This separation ensures that we live in a constant state of disappointment and a feeling that we are not doing the noble things God has called us to do.

I believe it is immanently practical to live in God's presence, regardless of what we are doing - eating or sleeping, playing or working. (I Cor. 10:31) Here is my counter to the above fallacies:

1. We must consider our purpose. What is our purpose? The Bible says we were created to worship (glorify) Him. So, I ask these questions: Is this worship experience supposed to be something we conjure out of our own selves? Does it originate in us and is it maintained by our own power?
   
   The answer to each question above is "No!" First, the Bible teaches us that we do not have the power to originate or maintain worship, in and of ourselves. Everything we attempt on our own is filthy and could never be elevated to something as glorious as worship!
   
   Therefore, it must originate and be maintained by Someone outside of ourselves.
   
   
2. What, then, is God's purpose? (To understand the Created One's purpose, we must understand the Creator's reason for creating us.)
   
   God's purpose, if you will, is to be continually, eternally pouring out Himself - His character, His essence, and His nature.
   
   Since His purpose is to give, He made a vessel to receive. We are made to receive God as He imparts Himself. In turn - and in gratefulness - we return to Him worship. We enjoy His display, we revel in His presence, and we GLORIFY Him.
   
   Note: If you have trouble with visualizing the above, just look at your children's display of enjoyment in the things or time you give them. If you have trouble with the concept that God wants you to enjoy Him, contact me and I will direct you to more scriptures on this subject.
   
   “I will say to the north, 'Give them up!' and to the south, 'Do not hold them back.' Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth-everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made." - Isaiah 43:6-7
   
   So, then, our purpose is to spend the rest of our lives passionately glorifying God by enjoying and displaying His excellent in all spheres of our life.
   
   “The purpose of Creation is that God may communicate happiness to the creature; for if God created the world that He may be glorified in the creature, he created it that they might rejoice in his glory; for we have shown that they are the same.” -Jonathan Edwards

Summary:

Each time we allow ourselves to be filled with His presence, we expand our capacity to contain His presence. We, as vessels made to receive, expand in our capacity to receive.

Understand that the things we do – the actions or inaction we take – directly affect the size of our hearts and our capacity to receive Him. Like Mr. Grinch in the Dr. Seuss story, our hearts can shrink and our capacity to care diminishes. The more time we spend with God, the more our hearts expand and our capacity to share Him expands with it.

I believe the reason we cannot stay long in His presence is precisely because we have not been in His presence long! Perhaps the reason for people feeling it is impractical to stay in God’s presence is that we are like distracted children who have not been taught the discipline of staying.

I believe the spiritual malaise found in American Christians today would be cured with more time in His presence, all day, every day.

Then, like Mr. Grinch, our hearts might “grow two sizes” that day.