I was cleaning my son’s room and in the midst of the piles, I found his prayer notebook from years ago when he was little.
I sat there in awe of his little heart prayers that He was bringing before God. When I was done I thought we need to get back to prayer. The older our children get it’s easy to move away from the foundational basics. Let’s get back to the basics because it’s what our kids desperately need in a world that is constantly changing.
So we found some journals and at night when time allows we spend some time talking to God in our journals. Because life is crazy we don’t always do this but I definitely want our kids to know there are lots of ways to connect with God.
I created this sheet to guide them. I do have to tell you that all 3 of my boys hate writing but oddly enough they’ll freely write in their journals.
My hope is that in prayer our children will see that God cares about everything that goes on in their life. They would know that God is real, alive and they can talk to him about anything. My prayer is that they would taste and see that He is good and take refuge in him. Psalms 34:8
Anything and everything. Everyday. Don’t be afraid to pray big prayers and small ones.
John Piper
You can download this P.R.A.Y Prompts worksheet here.
How to use your P.R.A.Y. prompts:
The P.R.A.Y. prompts can be used to guide you and your child to go beyond simply asking God for things but to see Him as our Heavenly Father who longs to connect with us.
We have used this prompt in various ways. You can practice each letter for a week. So one week you focus on “P” which is praising God and then the following week you focus on the next letter in the acronym P.R.A.Y. and so on. You can also use it to journal as we are doing. The page that says “Journaling Prayer Prompts” will guide you with various statements. My boys specifically need these prompts because they find it so difficult to know where to begin.
You can also use it to guide you in your audible prayer time from one aspect of prayer to another.
P- Praise – Start with Praising God for who He is and what He’s done. Tell God how awesome He is by recalling His faithfulness in your life, from God’s word or from what you’ve heard or seen. The prompts remind your child how to start. You’re awesome because…
My kids like to thank Him in this “praise” section which is fine but I have reminded them that praise and thanksgiving are two different things. They both are good and need but different from each other. I don’t focus on that too much as I don’t want them to get overwhelmed.
R- Repent – Then go into asking God to search your heart and repent. Ask God for the forgiveness of your sins that you’ve committed that day or anything else He may bring to your mind. Remind your children that this part is how we keep our relationship with God open and flowing. Imagine a pipe with freshwater flowing, if a rock gets stuck in it the water is blocked and you’re not able to fully drink. Sometimes it simply trickles other times it fully blocked. Sin acts like that rock and blocks full fellowship. It doesn’t remove us out of fellowship. God is still there but our sin keeps us from fully hearing and experiencing His fellowship not because He has removed it but because our sin has blocked it. When we come to God and confess and ask for forgiveness that’s how the rock is removed and we can fully experience His fellowship.
A- Ask- This is where we chat with God about what’s on our minds. Pray for yourself, your family, the sick, and those around you. For example, I bring to you Joey and ask that you would help him find his lost dog.
Y- Yield – Finally, end with “Yield” which is declaring that you leave these things in His hands and you trust Him with it. It can also be a time of quietly listening to Him. The prompt here can be, “Lord, your will be done… or God I know that you will do what is good for me so I leave…
Join me in Praying the Psalms for Our Children
In late February I started praying through the Psalms for my children again this year. You want to join me?
I created this 31 Days of Praying through the Psalms to help me connect with God on behalf of my children but also as a reminder to connect with my children in a more intentional way. You can find it HERE.
