What if your child never wanted to pray???

My youngest boys are 8yo.  They are like this.  I agree that setting an example and not pressuring is wise.  I did, however, talk with them one day about prayer and how it’s the way God has asked us to talk with Him and how important it is to talk to those we love.  And if we love our family and friends,  how much more should we love God.  I stressed the importance of tellling God of our graditude to Him and every day after we have our Bible time, I pray.  Before I say “amen” each boy says, “Thank you, God, for _______.”  Simple, and there is no pressure.  I do encourage them to give some thought to what they’re thankful for and I won’t allow silliness.  As time goes on, they may…or may not…be more comfortable about praying in public.  And whichever it is, it’s their personal lives and what is in their hearts that will speak louder than audible words to Him.

My ds8 is also similar to this. He will pray at meal times, when it is ONLY our family, but never if anyone else is present. He does have personal devotions in the mornings before getting out of bed, and there are guided prayers in his book. He says he does them. At night, when we are tucking them in, we ask them if there’s anything they want to pray for. Usuallly, they want to thank God for a good day or for a fun activity they got to do that day. If one of us is sick, ds will pray for that person if asked to, but not voluntarily. I agree with the others; don’t make a big deal out of it. You never know what your child is saying to God in their own private prayers. And, maybe they’re not saying anything on their own yet. They will eventually, you just have to trust that the examples you’re modeling and the prayers you’re praying over your children are not going unnoticed by them or by God. 

I’d say keep on modeling a prayerful relationship with Him. They more than likely have a silently prayerful habit already formed. ;0). The out loud part can come later. We are supposed to pray in our closets after all. 🙂

Becca<><

I have different issue on praying.  My children are 7.5 and 5, they don’t mind to pray in front of family but every prayer is the same!  Like “thank you God for the food, amen!”  I tried to encourage them to pray differently but they just used to this kind of prayer, how should I change this “habit”?  

Carmen

A really great resource for teaching and encouraging children to pray is a book called The Barber Who Wanted to Pray by R.C. Sproul. Its based on a true story and begins with a little girl asking her father how to pray in family devotions. He then shares with her a story about a barber, his desire to pray and Martin Luther’s advice to him. My children and I LOVED it and it was really helpful!

You might consider giving her a prayer journal that is just for her to write her prayers in. You could let her deocrate and make it more personal for her. In our home, we have a “prayer chair” with a table next to it that has a jounral and some other children’s books about God. It is never a place I force anyone to go to. There are times I invite a child to sit next to me and do their own journaling as I do mine. It has become a safe place and when they are experiencing “hard feelings” I will encourage them to “have some space in the prayer chair and tell God how they feel.” This is particularly helpful when the child is angry with me and doesn’t want to talk to me, but she will feel comfortable going to the prayer chair and writing about her feelings to God. If you are interested in more about the space we have and some of the “journal starters” I have given, I have wrtitten about it on a blogpost. Its in a post amongst some other things, about halfway down the post: http://elijahmanor.blogspot.com/2011/11/thanksgiving-2011.html

Thanks, Carmen, I hope it will be an encouragement to you. I saw another idea I’ve been intending to make but haven’t yet is these picture prayer cards I saw here.

http://mustardseeds.typepad.com/my_weblog/2011/09/prayer-cards.html