Teaching Kids to Pray
We have a habit of getting together on our bed with all the kids in the morning and reading the bible and taking turns in praying. It is lovely listening to our children learning to talk to their heavenly Dad.
Some of them are at a loss for words and need to be prompted as to what they might want to say. A number of them display typical human behavior of slipping into habit rather than the hard work of maintaining a real relationship. The prayer is thoughtlessly repeated, "Thank you, Father, for the wonderful day. Please help us be good. Amen."
But yet out of the mundane, there come regularly gems of precious moments of learning new things about the wonderful, kind God that made us, and sweet moments of real intimacy. Our youngest, Tyden, at 2 and a half, has really started to get into this relationship with God. When it's his turn to pray he wants us to help him. So we say, Hello God. And he repeats after us. We say, I love you, God. You're so big. And he repeats after us. Then we end off, Amen, and he looks at us in disgust and says, No, there's more coming!
Oh! Ok. So we continue, with him repeating each sentence. You made the birds and the trees. You're so clever. Thank you for making Mom and Dad. Thank you for making Jada and Kiara and Jed and Rourke and Kade. Amen.
Again, he looks at us as if we've lost the plot. No, he insists, there's more coming.
And so we continue. Many minutes later, he finally concedes to end off. Amen!
I asked him if he loves praying. And he replies, Yes. I love my God. God is here.
It's these uber precious moments that we remember, but they don't just happen. They come from a routine of consistent, sometimes monotonous teaching.
It's a bit like mining for gold. But we do have the reassurance that we're not just digging in the dirt. We're digging in a gold mine. God has put eternity in the hearts of our children. Their little souls long for him, and it is our pleasure to dig around and expose the gems that God has hidden inside them.
