I would guess of all the things Christian parents do at home to build faith foundations, the most consistent is teaching kids to pray. For many families though, the instruction stops after teaching kids how to say a couple of rote prayers like “God is Great” or “Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep”. To have a rich, full, active prayer life, there are a few more things you to need to teach your children.
Fortunately, prayer is extremely concrete in many ways. There are a lot of fun things you can do with your kids to teach them some prayer concepts and to help them develop good prayer habits. Here are a few of my favorites:
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- Praying Colors: This activity is great for the very youngest of children. Cut up little pieces of paper in different colors. Then when you pray as a family, have each person draw a slip of paper. They then need to thank God for something that is that color. So if your child pulled a green slip of paper, he may decide to thank God for frogs. This activity is great for kids who aren’t quite old enough to easily think of things for which they need to pray. It also reinforces the concept that all good things are from God – even frogs!
- Prayer Jars: Find empty, clean containers of any sort. It can be a jar or a juice can (make sure all rough edges are removed and small children have unbreakable containers). Encourage your kids to decorate their containers. Then give them slips of paper or wide craft sticks. Talk with them about all of the different types of things they might want to share with God in their prayers. Have them write each type of thing on a separate slip of paper or craft stick. Then when it’s time to pray, they can pull as many as they want out of their container to remind them of something they can share with God. This activity is great for all kids, but especially those transitioning to their own more private prayer life. It helps them to remember that the entire time in prayer shouldn’t be about them giving God some sort of to-do list of everything they personally want from Him. It encourages them to make their prayers a little broader and less selfish.
Continue reading Fun Activities to Teach Your Kids About Prayer
Gift giving to kids always fascinates me. There are the families who encourage their kids to ask for donations to charity instead of gifts for themselves. There are families who have a three or four gift limit. There are grandparents who shower kids in presents. There are uncles, aunts and friends who purposely seek out the most annoying gifts possible for your kids in order to amuse themselves.
A great way to help your kids understand the biblical concepts of serving others and sharing your faith, is by serving others as a family. The concept may sound overwhelming, or even scary.
Let’s face it. Obedience isn’t always fun. For kids, it often means you don’t get to do what you wanted to do because your parents has insisted you obey a command to stop. If we are really honest, teaching your kids to obey isn’t always a ton of fun either. Especially when they are young, it can seem like a constant round of saying “No” and giving out consequences to a chorus of tears and protests.
As I work with teens and young adults, I am finding many of them don’t know how to cook the simplest of dishes. While eating out all of the time may sound fun, it gets expensive very quickly. To be able to eat frugally and in healthy ways, your kids need to learn how to follow a simple recipe. Why not have some fun with it and teach them about the Bible at the same time?