Ideas for dad to teach children to pray:
Bored or Blessed?
What excites you? Do your children see you get excited about money, video games, and sports? If so, they will probably do the same. However, if you are thrilled by manmade things and ignore God-made things, you are warping your children’s perspectives on life.
Teach children to pray with excitement about God’s wonders
If you have a young child, take him or her for a walk and let your toddler teach you how to worship God. When your little buddy picks up a frog and stares at it in amazement, take notes. Children are naturally interested in what God does all around us. You and I get so busy we shrug off God’s greatest attempts at impressing us.
Teach your kids to pray by participating
Your children notice your involvement level in God’s kingdom. When others pray at church, do you doze off? When God moves and people weep, are you dry-eyed? When we lift songs of worship to our Savior, does the cat got your tongue? Children don’t just imitate you, they follow the path you travel the most.
Teach children with family altars which alter families
Don’t push prayer time off to just a church activity. Neither do you want to make it a bed-time only thing where we hurry and try to get everything right just in case Jesus comes back through the night. Prayer should be as natural as breathing.
Involve your children in morning prayer. Even if your schedule requires that you do devotions at the dinner table in the evening, you should be able to meet with the kids for 15 minutes of praise, repentance, requests and thanksgiving.
Start with something as simple as ACTS: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication. With this daily foundation, your children will learn to pray and keep God at the center of all they do.
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Here’s a book for parents and older children on learning how to pray:
Teaching Your Child How to Pray
Here’s a book for you to teach younger children how to pray:
Teaching Children to Pray: Ages 4 and 5
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Read this story to help teach your children to pray:
God’s Coloring Page
Gentle rain had fallen all night and left puddles for Misty to dodge as she and Wiggles ran out to find the morning paper. A few birds had gathered to sing in the two trees in their front yard. They stopped to look at Misty and Wiggles before they went back to chirping again.
“Stay out of the water!” she told the dog.
Wiggles stopped at one puddle to take a drink.
Misty found the newspaper in a blue plastic bag. She picked it up and looked at the sky. Rubbing some sleep out of her eye, she said, “Wiggles, look at the pretty sunrise.”
Misty ran back inside. “Guys, come see the sun. It is peaking through the clouds and looks like heaven.”
“Like heaven?” Mom asked. “That must be some sunrise.” She was busy in the kitchen, but Rusty and Dad came out front to look.
“I’m going to get my camera,” Rusty said.
Dad picked up Misty after they had looked at the sun for a minute and carried her inside. “Thanks for showing us that, honey. It really brightened up our day.”
He set her down and Misty ran into the kitchen. Mom was tying up a bag of trash.
“Are you going to come see it?”
“Sure,” Mom said opening the back door, “first, I need to set this bag out back.” She set the trash bag on the back deck and glanced at the sky. “Oh, look!”
Misty danced to the door. She stepped out and looked at the sky. There she saw a huge rainbow. It was not just a faint streak of pale colors. This was a bold, bright rainbow with capital letters of ROY G. BIV.[1] “Wow!” was all Misty could say.
Dad came out and looked. “Now that is awesome!”
Misty went to the front door and found Rusty. “Hey, you have got to come see this rainbow!”
“A rainbow? Where?” He followed Misty out the back door.
Everyone talked and laughed for a while, enjoying the sight. Suddenly, Dad said, “Hey, it’s getting late. We’d better get moving.”
“We haven’t prayed yet,” Rusty reminded them.
“You’re right,” Dad said. They all followed him into the living room and knelt together at the couch.
First, Dad prayed. He asked God to protect the family during their day. He thanked Him for the rain and a good roof on the house.
Next, Misty prayed, “Lord Jesus, thank you for the pretty, pretty sunrise. It really made me happy to see such bright colors. And thank you for that beautiful rainbow. I think you used all your crayons this morning to make the world look nice. Help me to make people as happy as you made me today.”
After Rusty and Mom prayed, everyone finished getting ready for the day.
• • •
Later that day, after Misty had finished school, she sat down and colored a picture for Mom. She drew a yellow sun shining on a little house with green grass. Then she drew a rainbow over the top of it all. She made sure to get all the colors in order, just like she had seen that morning.
Mom was working in the kitchen when Misty finished. She brought the picture in to her. “Here, Mom, look what I drew.”
“Oh, wow, Misty, that is very nice.”
Misty smiled really big. She looked at the picture again and then at the refrigerator to see if there was space.
Mom noticed where Misty was looking and said, “I think there is room over here. Let me move the calendar a little and…” her voice trailed off as she moved papers and magnets. “There,” she said, “your new picture will be right above the ice dispenser.
Misty clasped her hands together and smiled.
Mom hugged her and said, “That was a nice surprise this morning wasn’t it?”
Misty nodded.
“Did you know that was God’s gift to us? He likes to do things that make us smile.”
“It worked!” Misty said.
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Now discuss this story to help teach your children to pray!
What surprises has God given to make you glad?
When Misty colored the picture, what did she hope Mom would do?
Put it on the fridge.
Do you think Misty enjoyed hearing Mom say how much she liked the picture?
Yes. Many times we do things for people because we like to hear them say nice things.
Why do you think God does nice things for us?
Because He loves us.
Do you think He enjoys hearing about it the way Misty did?
Yes. We need to tell Him how much we enjoy His gifts.
What other things does God do that motivate you to thank Him, praise Him, and worship Him?
Prod them to talk about the stars, sunsets, pretty flowers, pretty birds, snowfall, and waterfalls they’ve seen.
What if we ignore God’s works and do not tell Him how pretty it is? How would Misty have felt if Mom had not liked her picture?
He might feel sad like she would have.
We worship God for who He is and thank Him for what He has done. What can you talk to Him about right now?
Take some time for each child to talk to the Lord.
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Read God’s Word to help teach your kids how to pray:
Bragging on God’s Handiwork
O God, it is right for us to praise you in Zion and keep our promises to you, because you answer prayers. People everywhere will come to you on account of their sins. Our faults defeat us, but you forgive them.
Happy are those whom you choose, whom you bring to live in your sanctuary. We shall be satisfied with the good things of your house, the blessings of your sacred Temple.
You answer us by giving us victory, and you do wonderful things to save us. People all over the world and across the distant seas trust in you. You set the mountains in place by your strength, showing your mighty power. You calm the roar of the seas and the noise of the waves; you calm the uproar of the peoples. The whole world stands in awe of the great things that you have done.
Your deeds bring shouts of joy from one end of the earth to the other. You show your care for the land by sending rain; you make it rich and fertile. You fill the streams with water; you provide the earth with crops. This is how you do it: you send abundant rain on the plowed fields and soak them with water; you soften the soil with showers and cause the young plants to grow.
What a rich harvest your goodness provides! Wherever you go there is plenty. The pastures are filled with flocks; the hillsides are full of joy. The fields are covered with sheep; the valleys are full of wheat. Everything shouts and sings for joy.
(Psalms 65:1-13, GNB)
When the LORD brought us back to Jerusalem, it was like a dream! How we laughed, how we sang for joy! Then the other nations said about us, “The LORD did great things for them.”
Indeed he did great things for us; how happy we were! LORD, make us prosperous again, just as the rain brings water back to dry riverbeds. Let those who wept as they planted their crops, gather the harvest with joy! Those who wept as they went out carrying the seed will come back singing for joy, as they bring in the harvest.
(Psalms 126:1-6, GNB)
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Teach children to pray by discussing what you just read:
In Psalm 65:5-7, what do people praise God for?
In Psalm 65:9-11, what do people praise the Lord for?
In Psalm 65:12-13, what causes people to rejoice in God?
What does Psalm 126 celebrate?
What things has God done in your life you can rejoice about?
How can you take the things the Lord Jesus has done in your life and put them on refrigerator, so to speak?
By telling others. By testifying at church. By praising Him, thanking Him, and worshipping Him in prayer.
Should your prayer time be more about what you need or more about who God is?
We should focus on God more than on ourselves. He wants to hear our needs, but not just those. This is a keep aspect of teaching children to pray.
Role play: You are on your way to a birthday party. It is raining. And the car gets a flat tire. What can you find to praise God for in this situation?
Sometimes it seems like God disappoints us. When Jesus left the disciples on the hillside, they were sad. However, after they received the Holy Spirit, they were full of joy and understood that He had to go away for this. When have you experienced something that made you really sad, but later you found out God was doing greater things in your life than you could understand at the time?
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Memorize this verse to help teach your children how to pray!
I Thessalonians 5:16-18
Rejoice evermore.
Pray without ceasing.
In every thing give thanks:
for this is the will of God
in Christ Jesus concerning you.
Please tell others about this devotional on teaching children how to pray.
[1] Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet