5 PRAYERS TO TEACH OUR CHILDREN (Guest Post)

Spring displays beautiful reminders of God’s love, kindness, and creativity—all worthy of His praise! Children often learn “thank you” prayers first. In this guest post, Laura Sassi shares with us more kinds of prayers we can teach children.

5 Prayers to Teach Our Children by Laura Sassi

MY TENDER HEART PRAYER BOOK is my ninth children’s book.  Along with its companions, MY TENDER HEART BIBLE and MY TENDER HEART DEVOTIONS, it holds a special place in my heart because it was written to point little ones—and the grown-ups who love them—to God and to prayer.

As a young child, I remember praying at the dinner table and at bedtime, but it wasn’t until I grew up that I fully grasped how much God loves when we converse with Him through all the ups and downs of each day. With this fuller understanding, I did my best to plant seeds of prayer in my children’s hearts by incorporating prayer throughout our days. 

They loved praying but I noticed something interesting. Most of their prayers were either prayers of petition or prayers of thanksgiving. So, we started adding more variety. This intentionality carried into MY TENDER HEART PRAYER BOOK as well. That’s why, you’ll notice not only prayers of petition and thanksgiving, but also prayers of confession, lamentation and adoration. 

Interested in growing your own children’s prayer life? Here are five easy prayers to expand their understanding of the many ways we can connect with God through prayer.

5 Kinds of Prayers

The “Please” Prayer. Very simply, this is a prayer in which we ask God for something. Before praying this one with your child, brainstorm together the kinds of things they might ask God for.  These could include asking His blessings on their days or for their food, or asking God’s help in a specific situation. Then pray together by opening with “Dear God, Please…”

The “Thank you” Prayer.  When we receive a gift, it’s polite to say thank you. God also loves when we remember to thank Him for all the ways He blesses us. Before praying this one with your child, share with each other some of the things you are thankful for. Then pray together by opening with, “Thank you, God, for….”

The “I’m Sorry” Prayer. Confessing our sins to God and accepting His forgiveness is foundational to our saving grace through Jesus. Indeed, as the Bible reminds us in I John 1:9 (NIV), “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” And how can little ones do this?  By telling God “I’m sorry for ___” and then naming what they did wrong. This could include things like hurting someone’s feelings, taking something that didn’t belong to them, not telling the truth and more.

The “I’m Feeling ___” Prayer. Nothing is hidden from God. He knows when we are happy or excited. He also knows when we feel sad or scared. And He loves when we come to Him with our feelings so He can comfort us.  As it says so beautifully in Psalm 34:18, “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” The “I’m Feeling___” Prayer is best activated right in the middle of that moment when you notice your child is feeling sad or lonely or scared (or whatever). Snuggle up for hug, then pray together for God’s comfort and peace. Begin with “Dear God, Right now I’m feeling___”, then let it all spill out into the wonderful arms of Jesus.

The “Praise God” Prayer. Praising God is taking time to thank God for who He is and all that He has done. It’s like a “Thank you” Prayer but even bigger—focusing on His very being. Since the Book of Psalms is full of praise prayers, a wonderful way to introduce this prayer to little ones is to choose a praise prayer from Psalms and do an echo prayer, where you say a phrase and your child echoes it after you. Psalm 95 is a a favorite choice of mine.

Thank you, Sally, for having me as your guest. Sweet blessings to all as we devote ourselves to planting seeds of prayer in the hearts of our precious children.  

Laura, thank you for sharing these five kinds of prayers to teach our little ones. And, thank you for writing delightful books we can read to children while we teach them.

Dear reader friends, if you’d like to learn more about Laura, her books, and correlating activities visit https://laurasassitales.wordpress.com/.

Laura Sassi has been a teacher, homeschool mama, children’s ministry director and more. She is the author of multiple books for children including Christian Book Award finalist Goodnight Ark, Love is Kind, Bunny Finds Easter, the My Tender Heart books and more. She’s also written poems and stories for various children’s publications. She is passionate about the power of story to spark meaningful conversations and is always on the look out for creative ways to share her love of books with kids and point other to Jesus. She lives in New Jersey with her husband, two children, and an adorable cockapoo named Sophie.