Praying with children

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LilyG

LilyG

Puritan Board Freshman
Hello all.

How do you pray with your kids? Multiple times a day? It's easy for me to grab the kids and and pray when something is going on... Illness or stress or fear... But routine prayer, other than one good family prayer a day, is always a struggle. How do I do it, without sounding irreverent or... trite?

Maybe I'm overthinking this.
 
As to time, structure and consistency is the main element. Meals is a natural starter. Family devotions (which never have to be elaborate) are good. Just start somewhere and be consistent.

As to the types of prayers--at meals I use a variety of regular structured prayers.
 
Been keeping my eyes peeled for a good book of structured prayers to pray with kids.
 
LilyG said:
Hello all.

How do you pray with your kids? Multiple times a day? It's easy for me to grab the kids and and pray when something is going on... Illness or stress or fear... But routine prayer, other than one good family prayer a day, is always a struggle. How do I do it, without sounding irreverent or... trite?

Maybe I'm overthinking this.
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It varies. Ordinarily we will pray before and after during family worship which happens at least once a day, or twice a day if we are on the mark. We pray before meals, or before and after meals if we are on the mark.

We will also pray occasionally before departing on a road trip, etc. Then, depending on which one of the parents puts which one of the kids down at bed time, we may pray with them also. As need arise, as you mention, we will pray with them as we’re led in such a case.

For our family we do encourage our children to pray immediately upon waking up and thank the Lord for the day He has made and for permitting us to enter therein.

Don’t overthink it. Build holy habits bit by bit as you’re led and able.
 
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LilyG said:
Been keeping my eyes peeled for a good book of structured prayers to pray with kids.
Click to expand...

Valley of Vision could be helpful. Not to read aloud to them, per se, but to skim prior to prayer in order to give you a bit of a stencil to use as you lead them in prayer. I do this with Spurgeon’s devotions sometimes in family worship, where I’ll paraphrase and key off of some of the points he makes in such a way that it’s a bit more digestible for the young ones.

Anything suitable that gets the clutch in, so to speak, and gets the wheels turning, can be an aid in getting you and the kids going in the right direction as you seek to pray more regularly.
 
So far (with my vast experience as a father of a single 10-month-old), it's been before meals, before bedtime, and during family worship. My child cannot sit still to save her life, but sometimes I'll talk her through the Lord's prayer if I'm taking her on a walk in a stroller. She might not understand well just yet, but at least I'm establishing the habit of talking with my children about the Lord.
 
LilyG said:
Hello all.

How do you pray with your kids? Multiple times a day? It's easy for me to grab the kids and and pray when something is going on... Illness or stress or fear... But routine prayer, other than one good family prayer a day, is always a struggle. How do I do it, without sounding irreverent or... trite?

Maybe I'm overthinking this.
Click to expand...
We pray at the beginning and end of family worship twice a day and at each meal. That makes 7 prayers as a family each day.

I should note that we're all at home all day. I work from home, my wife is a homemaker, and we homeschool the kids.
 
What does a meal time prayer for you look like? A simple, " Thank you Lord for this meal..."?
 
LilyG said:
What does a meal time prayer for you look like? A simple, " Thank you Lord for this meal..."?
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I might pray along these lines:

“Gracious Heavenly Father, thank you for this food. Please bless it to our bodies. Help us to not take it for granted that many families don’t have food. But Lord, let us not be satisfied with only food for the body, but give us food for our souls. Remind us that you are the bread from Heaven, and that you have the Living Water, and if a man eat and drink of you, he will never hunger or thirst again. Amen.”

Contrasting the physical with the spiritual is something I try to do a lot with the kids, so it features as a recurring theme in my prayers. Otherwise, I will pray based on what we learned in family worship, a recent lesson they learned or some other current event.

Sometimes if we are rushed or on the road and getting fast food, our youngest will pray something to the effect of, “Thank you Jesus for this food. Amen.” We try to encourage them to pray in a heartfelt manner as opposed to something rote or akin to a vain repetition. If I’m late to the dinner table and kids are already eating, a finger in the air pointing upward is everyone’s reminder to thank the Lord for what they’re eating if they haven’t already.

We do aim to pray after our meals also, but we haven’t nailed down a repeatable routine for our meal time with the various ages just yet. It’s one area where we - and by we I really mean I - need to improve. FYI, Deuteronomy 8:10 KJV would be the warrant for praying after meals.

In keeping with this theme of contrasting the physical with the spiritual and prioritizing the spiritual, we do make it a point to do family worship before we eat the first meal of the day.

Similarly, interruptions during family worship are treated much more gravely than, say, interruptions when Mom and Dad are talking. We want them to really reverence the Lord and understand that what is set apart for Him is much more special than what is more casual and common to men. It is surely wrong to interrupt someone who is speaking their mind, but it is much more wrong to interrupt someone who is speaking from God’s Word.

So whether it’s the order we do things in the home, the content of our corporate prayers or the difference in discipline, we try to really underscore that in different ways throughout the day for the children’s benefit.
 
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TylerRay said:
We pray at the beginning and end of family worship twice a day and at each meal. That makes 7 prayers as a family each day.

I should note that we're all at home all day. I work from home, my wife is a homemaker, and we homeschool the kids.
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Let me know if your company is ever hiring. :) I'm looking for an at-home job.
 
TylerRay said:
We pray at the beginning and end of family worship twice a day and at each meal. That makes 7 prayers as a family each day.

I should note that we're all at home all day. I work from home, my wife is a homemaker, and we homeschool the kids.
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Heh, yeah I should clarify that I'm home with the kids (and homeschooling) while the husband is at work. I'd like to get a regular day-time prayer thing going (been very irregular). Just a simple, meaningful prayer type, perhaps before breakfast/lunch. The Lord's Prayer has been a great addition and model during our evening family prayer.

I do realize there is a lot of freedom in the when, how often and how-to's.

I just found an old thread with a comment on his grandfather's habbit of ending prayers with a quick summary of some of the Lord's prayer. I love that and that is helpful!

Children Praying at Mealtime....

I'm curious to anyone's thought on this: What is your take and standing on asking or having your child pray at dinner or lunch-time when adults are present, such as Mother and Father? ....and at that, if the father is there, what about the mother praying instead of dad? Really curious on...
www.puritanboard.com www.puritanboard.com
 
I am out of house on workdays early before our kids are up. We homeschool and they have prayer during bible and catechism as part of their studies. Prayer before meals and during family worship. Sometimes at bedside.

Something we do on occasion is to have one of the girls sub in with prayer instead of my wife or I.
 
Use the Bible as the basis for your prayers. You can read a verse and then teach your kids how to turn it into prayer material.
 
Ryan&Amber2013 said:
Sadly not enough to make a career of it. I was a business major.
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It’s never too late to learn! Sophia.org can take you the college credit route. Other organizations like SANS.edu and TeamTreehouse can get you prepared for a career change as well and have various repayment options (such as income share agreements).
 
For my family*, we start our day with family prayer and Bible reading. One person will lead the family in prayer before lunch*. And family prayer with singing at bedtime.

A big thing that helped when my kids were younger (though all old enough to read) was we wrote prayer cards and passed them. It significantly helped them grow past just thanking God for a good night's sleep.

One of the ways we keep it interesting is by praying in a different order every time. For example, everyone has their day to be the one to start and then we go up in age in the morning and down at night.

* I'll caveat that my kids are older though this has been our habit for many years
* I also work from home and my wife homeschools our kids. I will periodically miss lunch family prayer due to meetings
 
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