The family that prays together stays together
In my recent Gems I’ve been sharing some ideas on training our children in response to the Proverb: Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he won’t depart from it. (Proverbs 22:6) This Gem is about training our children in Prayer and Bible Reading.
I realise that we are all at different stages in our own personal Christian walk and that our home situations vary but, as Christian parents, we have a wonderful opportunity to help our children develop a personal relationship with our loving Heavenly Father. Please don’t feel you have to implement all the ideas I share here but my prayer is that you’ll find something in this article that you can apply or be encouraged by.
In our busy lives, bed time is an ideal time to spend quality time with each of our children and many parents use this time well. It’s also an opportunity to include a simple Bible story and a prayer. As the children get older, the format can change. For example asking some questions about the Bible Story such as What did you like best about the story? Why did Jesus tell this story? What does He want us to do? The latter question can perhaps lead on to a topic for prayer. One suggestion for helping children formulate their own prayers is ask them the same questions each night—What are you thankful for today? Who would you like to pray for? Is there anything worrying you that you would like to pray about?—and encourage them to use their answers as a basis for their prayer each night.
I’m thankful that early in my life I was encouraged to use the Scripture Union method of Bible reading. It started by praying asking God to speak to me through His Word and to help me to understand what I read. Then, after reading, taking time to reflect on a set of questions which would help me apply it to my own life using questions such as What was the main point of the passage? What do I learn about God—Father, Son, or Holy Spirit? Is there an example to follow or a command to obey? How is God asking me to apply it? I have followed this method in varying forms my whole life and have benefited so much from having my relationship with God strengthened and grounded through reading His Word daily. There are many good devotional books available to help train young children and teenagers to become familiar with reading God’s Word. I’m sure you’ll find one to meet your family’s needs.
There’s a saying that was popular many years ago —The family that prays together stays together. Sharing prayer points as a family could be a great way of bonding together and growing in our faith and love for God. One family I know has a board in the kitchen where they put prayer points for all to pray for—such as praying for a family they knew who had experienced a tragedy. Some families regularly have family devotions around the meal table and this is a great opportunity for children to learn to pray in front of others among other things. Other families may have a quick prayer together each morning committing the day to God before they all rush out the door. It’s important that parents share their prayer points too e.g. Dad has an important business meeting today. Pray that it goes well for him.
I recently saw the movie Unsung Hero which features the music-loving Smallbone family—Australians who moved to the USA in the 1990’s. On arrival they experienced extreme financial difficulties and disappointment, so much so that they didn’t have the money to set up the unfurnished house that they moved into when they arrived. The parents shared their plight with the children and miraculously, as they all started to pray for the things they needed, God provided for them through unique circumstances. It was obviously a great bonding experience for the family as well as building up their individual faith in God’s goodness and His care for them.Today two of the sons are the key performers in the Christian music group For King and Country and their sister is the well-known gospel singer Rebecca St James.
It is my prayer that God will guide you in finding appropriate ways to train your children to develop their relationship with God through reading His Word and through prayer.
Grandma Adele
