Troublesome Topic: HOW TO TEACH YOUR CHILDREN TO PRAY

The primary responsibility for training your children (and grandchildren) is on you, the parents (and grandparents). I suggest that you act purposefully to train your children in the art of prayer through:

YOUR EXAMPLE IN PRAYER

Your children should hear you praying the kind of prayers that give glory to God.

Your children should not find interceding for others to be odd or rare. However, they should find asking God for favors to be rare and cautious.

Your children should hear you pray for the sick by asking God to glorify Himself through that situation.

The following story exemplifies the power of teaching by example. A man involved in some kind of Christian ministry took a plane from point A to point B and seated beside him was a young lady travelling with an infant son. This mom had no hands, and no arms; she cared for her child with her feet. The man next to her watched while trying not to stare. In conversation he learned that she was a single mom, there was no dad in the picture. After some time, he asked her the question that was burning in his mind. “I’m amazed to watch you care for your son with only your feet. But there have to be some things that you can’t do without arms and hands. Right?

She answered, “Actually, there is only one thing I cannot do. But instead of telling you about it, let me show you.” Then she reached into her bag with one foot, grabbed a bottle, took off the cap with the toes of her other foot and, and we would say “handed it” to her son who took the bottle with his feet and began to drink it. The man’s eyes widened and his jaw dropped. His mind was reeling with the question, “What did I just see?” Then she put it into words for him, “The only thing I cannot do is teach him how to use his hands.”

YOUR EXAMPLE IN SPEECH

Your children should hear you expressing trust in God for the provision of your personal needs.

They should see you trusting Him for an outcome to your request for healing that glorifies Him even if it is painful.

They should hear and see you focus on God’s will not on your own desires.

Your children should hear and see you joining God in His great causes by trying to stay up to date on efforts around the world toward evangelism, discipleship, teaching, etc.

YOUR CAREFUL EXPLANATIONS

When the time is right, your children and grandchildren need to hear you explain the difference between asking for favors and true prayer.

They will need to understand how to discern the purpose of God. They will need to be familiar enough with the Bible to know what His expressed will is.

Just as God is calling us to something higher regarding prayer, we should use our example and our words to call our children and grandchildren to something higher when it comes to prayer.

This is the last lesson in this series on prayer. Thank you for reading.