Sheena Loves Sunsets

Teaching Kids to Pray: Anytime, Anywhere

Just as spending time together is important in any relationship, so is spending time with God. One of the best ways that we can introduce our kids to God is through prayer.

Here are some ideas and tips on how we, as Christian parents, can teach our kids to make prayer a part of their lifestyle.

Teaching Kids to Pray: Why?

Prayer deepens our child’s relationship with God. But that’s not all. It also:

Model Being Prayerful

The best way to teach something to kids is by modelling. How can prayer be a part of their everyday if prayer isn’t a part of your everyday? Teaching kids to pray is more than just telling them to pray; it’s also (and actually more about) showing them how to pray.

We, as parents, can model being prayerful by also improving our own personal prayer life. Prayer is really just a conversation with God, so have conversations with Him throughout the day. Tip: Don’t forget to say those conversations out loud when you’re with your kids! 😉

Remember that consistency is the key. It’s a mistake to think that just because you did it once, that that is enough “modelling.” If you want prayer to come naturally to them, they have to be able to see how naturally it also comes to you.

Kids copy everything that we do, don’t they? Both the good and the bad. So by God’s grace, let’s all strive to be a good example!

Ideas on What to Pray For

Remember to encourage them to pray from the heart. In our family, as much as possible, no memorized prayers. And memorized prayers doesn’t even have to mean prayers other people wrote (“Our Father” from the Bible, and others.) There have been times when I would ask Luke to pray before we begin our homeschooling and he finds himself blurting out “Dear God, thank you for the food….oops...” Haha.

We try to ask Luke to say his own prayers. But of course, he’ll need guidance and a few ideas too! Here are some that we taught Luke that you might want to adapt if you are teaching kids to pray:

Tips for Parents of Younger Kids:

Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.” (Proverbs 22:6)