We pray with our kids before meals and before bed. I have tried to find other opportunities to pray with the kids also. We pray together whenever we see an ambulance with its lights on. If I get a phone call or see a message on the computer that someone needs prayer, when appropriate, I have the kids stop and pray with me. I want the kids to know and experience that they can talk to God at any moment. A great resource is “Power of a Praying Parent,” by Stormie Omartian. This is mostly about praying for your kids and how to do that effectively. There’s an acronym that can help you to remember what you can teach your kids to pray for – ACTS – Adoration; Confession; Thanksgiving; Supplication. Adoration is a fancy way for saying “praising God.” Confession is talking to God about our shortcomings and acknowledgement of our sin. Thanksgiving is simply saying thanks for all God has blessed us with. Supplication is bringing our requests to God. That can give you some direction if it’s helpful, but what God really wants is you – real and true, so you can teach your kids to talk to God about anything to help build a real relationship.
Love!
Thanks
Love it! If we were closer in proximity we would be great “in real life” friends, we parent so similarly! But instead, we’ll just be bloggy friends. I too am trying to teach my children to pray and I can already see God working in their lives and hearts in this area, and it is precious. One thing we are doing this year is praying over our Christmas cards/pictures and it is making a huge impact on my boys’ hearts. They ask me daily, “Mommy, who are we praying for today?”
I blogged about it here if you are interested:
http://teachingmyblessings.blogspot.com/2012/01/morning-devotional-and-christmas-card.html
Just thought I would share.
Thank you for your awesome parenting tips!!
Trina
Trina, I love the idea of keeping the Christmas cards as catalysts for who to pray for. I’m going to do that next year. I’ll need to send you our Christmas cards so I can get your prayers too
. I do love having you walk this path with me. I’m sure we would be friends if our paths crossed in the real world. Until then…blog friends it is.