How to Help Your Kids Fall in Love with Prayer
Children are such precious gifts from the Lord! It is our honor as parents, grandparents, guardians, and/or teachers to help point them back to their Loving Father. One of the most basic ways to do this with your kids, even from a very young age, is helping them learn how to fall in love with prayer. These three simple tips may not only help your children fall in love with prayer, but you also!
Prayer and Children in the Bible
Prayer is simply a time where you are sitting at Jesus’ feet sharing your hopes, dreams, triumphs, and failures with Him. It is how we grow in our relationship with the Lord by spending time with Him just like how when we spend time with our spouse, children, or friends we are strengthening those relationships.
Jesus had some beautiful words to speak about spending time with children in Luke 18:15-17:
“People were also bringing babies to Jesus for him to place his hands on them. When the disciples saw this, they rebuked them. But Jesus called the children to him and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”
Jesus loved spending time with children. Their childlike faith is used as an example of how we all should approach Jesus. This shows us that there is no one too young or too “childlike” to approach the feet of Jesus. He wants us all to come to Him just like little children.
1 – Be an Example
The most powerful way for a child to learn something is by watching someone else. The younger the kids the more likely they are watching everything you do and copying it in some form. I know my four year old copies things I say all the time!! It’s taught me to be cautious with my words as well as the significance of my role as a mom.
My husband and I both pray out loud in front of our children often, usually multiple times a day. We don’t try to “dumb” it down for our kids or make it sound a certain way. We just pray our hearts like we normally would, and when we talk to our boys about praying we make sure to emphasize that God wants to hear EVERYTHING that’s on our hearts and minds – the good, the bad, the silly, the ugly.
Make sure when you are praying out loud with your kids to include them in the prayer. Praying for the family unit or something specific about each child. When I pray for my boys before bed, I do it in each of their individual rooms when I’m laying them down. I make sure during my prayer I thank God for each boy and name specific things I love about them and ways I’d love to see God help them grow in.
An example of this would be:
“Lord, thank you so much for Sam and the joy he brings to our family. Thank you that you created him for specific purposes here on earth. I pray he would never lose the joy and excitement he has for life, and that he would never become jaded or deceived by the enemy and the world. Continue to strengthen his relationship with his brother, and help them love each other out of Your love and grace.”
Your kids are watching you. They watch how you react to situations and how you talk about/to God. Especially as little ones, they are soaking in everything they see and experience. Parents will definitely mess up plenty, and we can trust God’s grace will cover our mess ups. But we also know God uses us to teach and direct them through His word and Spirit. Our kids will be more likely to want to pray and learn to love spending time with God when they see the joy it brings their parents to do it.
2 – Give them Opportunities
Our children won’t recognize that they can pray on their own if you never give them an opportunity. They may think it’s just something grown ups do, not something they can do. I know growing up I didn’t realize the importance of me talking to God because I thought it was something only super spiritual grown up people did. But we can start nipping that lie right in the bud from the beginning with our kids. Teach them and show them that anyone can pray anytime.
It has helped me tons to have specific times during the day that I pray with the kids. I don’t confine myself to just praying during these specific times with the kids, but it’s a good base I try to do every day. It helps me to stay intentional with praying with them. Plus kids love a routine (as do I) so it’s an easy way to incorporate regular prayer time together into your already existing things you do.
Three times of day you can pray with your kids
1 – In the Car. Yes, every single time we get into the car to go somewhere we start our journey off with prayer. So this could happen multiple times of the day. My kids are used to it now and are usually so eager to pray that they fight over who will pray first. Usually in our car, every person in the car takes turn to pray, but I always give my boys a choice. Make sure you never force your kids to pray. This will result in a distorted view of what prayer is, and the joy it brings.
2 – At the table. No matter the meal, we always bless it! And usually my kids want to be a part of the fun. In fact, my oldest son who is four usually takes the initiative to start praying on his own. Again, I never force anyone to pray who doesn’t want to, but I make sure that everyone is invited to pray. And it doesn’t have to be limited to the food but anything on their hearts.
3 – Before bed. I briefly mentioned this before, but both my husband and I make sure we take individualized time to pray with each of our kids. This is a more intimate time just you and your child together. Most of the time my boys do not want to pray before bed so it’s just me/my husband. And that’s OK! We are setting an example of a good time to pray for rest and praise God for the wonderful day He gave us.
Are there times in your day that you think you could start implementing prayer time into? Some other times could be when your kids first wake up, when you sit down to homeschool or do homework, or praising God for the beauty of His creation when you’re outside playing. There is no limit to what we can praise God for, and how often we should be praying! I just encourage you to give your children a chance to be involved and pray their own hearts – no matter the time of day or what it is.
3 – Don’t Criticize
When you start giving your kids a chance to pray, you’re going to start hearing some interesting and fun prayers! It is so cool to me to watch my kids pray for things that are important to them. I can’t tell you how many dinosaurs have been prayed for in our house! If I were to correct them for praying for dinosaurs or anything else that’s important to them, it would start to make them feel like what it is important to them is not important to God.
Remember kids are kids. They have a very narrow worldview, and that’s OK! God grows it as they grow. Encouraging them to pray for things that matter to them now will teach them to always pray for things that matter to them as they grow. My youngest son is scared to go pee pee in the potty. Sometimes I pray with him that God will make him brave to go pee pee in the potty. The next thing I know, he’s taking the initiative to pray that for himself without any prompting. It’s something he realized he needed help with and prays for it. He still hasn’t gone pee pee in the potty, but God’s working beautiful things in his heart!
You can gently talk with them about things they could pray for or show them by praying for these things with them. They may not want to pray for those things, but it’s again being an example and will open up their minds and hearts to maybe praying for it in the future.
If the kids start being silly during prayer or seem to be getting off track or distracted by something else, you can gently remind them they are still praying by saying something like “are you done praying now?” This usually jogs their memory back into the prayer track. But if they are laughing and saying funny things while they pray, I encourage you not to correct or stop them. Usually what I do when this happens, is after everyone is done praying, I talk to them about how God created us with our sense of humors and loves it when we laugh and have fun with Him.
Making sure your kids feel comfortable praying no matter what they are feeling, helps them feel secure praying. They know that God isn’t judging them for saying something wrong or silly. He is simply delighting being with them. This is a great reminder for us as adults too! Prayer is a time of intimacy with the Lord, and it should be raw and real. God isn’t criticizing us for our prayers so we definitely shouldn’t do that to our children.
I pray this article not only encouraged you to spend more time in prayer with your kids, but also for you to spend more time in prayer for yourself. It is such a beautiful and intimate time with the Lord where you will find hope, freedom, and healing. One of the things I love the most about praying with my kids is listening to them praise the Lord for everything from the trees outside to how much they love their family. I encourage you to check out this post I wrote on prayer to shift your prayers from asking to praising. Praising God about everything realigns your your perspective on life and will help your kids do the same. We would all be a lot happier in life if we could maintain that Kingdom perspective He desires for us. It’s a great thing to teach our kids young!
What times of day are you going to take time to pray with your kids?
