How do you teach your child to pray?
- If the child is young, you can have the child repeat simple phrases about real issues. For example, “Please help me not to be selfish and to share with my sister.”
- Give your children a good example yourself by praying in an honest way in front of them, without using lots of conventions and religious words that sound like God is unapproachable. Your kids become you; they will imitate how you pray.
- Don’t be afraid to confess sin openly. Admit your own sin before God in your prayers, so that they learn how to confess sin openly without condemnation, expecting forgiveness and change in their lives.
What can you learn from children as they pray?
Jesus says we are to become like little children to enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 18:1-6) What does this mean? What attributes do children display in their prayers?
- How to be trusting
- How to be open to God
- How to be humble
- How to have a wide-eyed wonder
- How to adore God in a fresh way
How to Lead Your Children to the Lord
In the audio I share how my husband and I led each of our children to the Lord. We wanted to make sure that they understood their depravity before coming to Christ, so that they could understand why they needed a Savior. We didn’t want to just pray a prayer with them and give them a false sense of being saved when they weren’t. On the other hand, we didn’t want to block our children from coming to Christ. After all, Jesus said, “Let the little children come to Me.” (Matthew 19:14) That said, this is how we led each of our children to Christ:
- He Imitated My Spirit–how my oldest son came to know Christ
- He Smashed the Glass–how my second son came to know Christ
- It’s Hard for the Righteous to Be Saved–how my youngest son came to know Christ
- I’m So Sorry, Mommy…–how my daughter came to know Christ
I share each of these stories with you because maybe one of your children falls under one of the personalities listed above. For example, what do you do when you have a good kid who can’t see that he is a sinner? On the other hand, how to you reach a child who is ruled by anger? Is it possible to teach spiritual things without speaking a word? Hear the full stories in this powerful audio:
Right-click the link, “Save as,” and choose “Desktop” to download the audio.
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Tags: children, Christian Living, parenting, prayer
These are great tips that I have never seen anywhere so far. Giving examples is really the most important things to do. Thank you for sharing.
I knew that giving examples from my children’s lives would help other parents in knowing how to lead their children to Christ.
Susan- this was a very practical post! I had to go check out how each of your kids came to Christ! Thank you for sharing!
So many kids who come from Christian families abandon the faith when they get older because they were never led to have a true personal relationship with Jesus. We can’t take it for granted that our kids know Christ unless we teach them how to connect with Him.
These are great tips in helping our children feel comfortable praying. We have been working on helping our kids understand the difference between praying to God and praying as if He were a genie who’s going to give us everything we want.
Good point. God doesn’t want to be treated like a genie.
What great insights for teaching our children to pray. I would love to read the posts that you linked to too.
Each one meant so much to me.
Nice! There is nothing better than seeing your children develop a real relationship with God!
“I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children walking in the truth.” 3 John 1:4
Wow this is immensely blessed me… true I have experienced this whenever we portray an attitude of prayer our children do realize that it’s to a person and to a wall or into thin air … it becomes life as they watch us.
Yes, we are speaking to a Person when we pray!
This is great, Susan! Thanks for sharing your stories with us.
Glad they were a blessing to you!
I like what you say here about being an example and praying in an honest and approachable way.
Kids emulate who we are, so honesty with God is wonderful for them to learn from us.