Teaching Kids that Prayer Is an Action Verb

I’ve been thinking about something.I’m wondering if we teach out kids that “praying” is more of a noun than a verb.

Books on the internet and magazines offer insight into prayers we can pray for our children, our spouses, our friends and yes, even our pets.

I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with someone’s published words inspiring us to form our own thoughts and ways to express ourselves to the Lord, but when we always depend on printed phrases for our communication with our heavenly Father, we have a problem.

Praying is an action verb – a constant conversation between us and God.

So as I said, I’ve been thinking …

1. Shouldn’t we teach our kids to share their own thoughts with God? (Matthew 6:7) Sometimes we teach very young children a short poetic prayer and that may get them off to a good start, but the child needs to grow beyond those memorized words. We get excited the first time our child says, “Please juice, Mama,” but if that’s all our child is saying to us when he’s six – well, we’d better rethink our vocabulary training. When your children talk to you, their parent, or to a friend, they don’t repeat the same things over and over, so why do we teach them to do that with the Lord?

2. Shouldn’t we teach our kids that prayer is NOT a good luck charm? Sometimes we pray as if God is a magician who will majically give us magic things or cincumstances if we ask “just right.” We don’t see Him as a loving, sovereign God Who loves us with a love we can’t begin to comprehend.

God does not play games with us.

Recently I read a book entitled The Insanity of God, a story of a missionary who traveled to countries where believers are consistently and cruelly persecuted. His goal was to discover if and how these believers grow in their faith since everyone they meet is antagonistic to that faith. The author was in such seriously dangerous territory, that he could not even put his name on the book. Yet he discovered that it is often the most persecuted people who have the deepest faith. They view their relationship with Christ as the most valued aspect of life rather than striving after superficial materialism. Sometimes their prayers were ones of thanksgiving for the horrific persecution that they bear daily. They are thankful they have the privilege of suffering for their heavenly Father.

Yes, we need to teach our children to pray about all things – but we also need to teach them to pray about more than material possessions. When Paul wrote to the Christians in Colossae, he told them exactly what he said while praying for them: And so, from the day we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. (Colossians 1:9-10).

Should we not be encouraging our children to pray for wisdom, for discernment in making good choices, for a desire to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord? Should we not be encouraging them to pray for a desire to know God’s Word?

Instead, we encourage them to focus their prayers on a trip to Disney (because we know that’s where our next vacation will be anyhow) or a new bike (because we know that’s what Grandma is getting them for their next birthday.) We think that by “setting up” these prayers we are teaching our children to trust God. But actually what we’re doing is setting them up for discouragement.

Many adults who reject the faith of their parents do so because, “God doesn’t listen to me. He doesn’t answer my prayers. I prayed for this to happen and it didn’t, so God doesn’t care. So my conclusion is He doesn’t exist, or if He does, He’s forgotten me.” They don’t understand that prayer isn’t a Christmas list for Santa Claus, but what we do all day every day. Prayer is our communication with our Heavenly Father, being assured that He is with us and helping us (by giving us courage, strength and peace) through the tangles of this earthly life.

3. Shouldn’t we teach our kids to pray for the Lord’s will to be done? Christ Himself prayed for that while on the Mount of Olives. (Luke 22:24) Nevertheless, not My will, but Yours, be done.

Some people resent being told to pray for God’s will, but why? Why would we not want to align ourselves with the will of an omniscient God? What better place is there to be? Why do we fight against that so much? (Well, actually we fight because we usually prefer our own will, not God’s will.)

4. Shouldn’t we teach our kids to pray without ceasing? (I Thessalonians 5:17). “Without ceasing” does not mean walking around with our heads bowed, but it does mean that we should always be in an attitude of prayer. We should be aware that God is listening to us all the time.

The Psalmist tells us (139:4): Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, You know it altogether. God knows every word we think and say – not just the words we speak during formal prayer.

We can teach our kids to pray when someone is teasing them at school, when they’re thankful for a good day, when they have a difficult task in front of them, when they’re worried about Uncle Bob being in the hospital.

Prayer is not a thing that shows up at 10:15 a.m. on a Sunday morning. Prayer is our very life. Prayer is all day/every day communication with our Heavenly Father – that should be so much a part of us that everything we do and say should be done through the lens of our relationship with the Lord.

Praying is how we have a conversation with God.