There is a new Christian film which is opening in a week or two (August 28, 2015 War Room). The underlying theme is prayer, so they are releasing five new books on prayer to support the film. I was given an opportunity to review all of them. I’m still reading the ones for women and men, but wanted to give you my thoughts on the three for children and teens.
Peter’s Perfect Prayer Place
The illustrations are cartoonish, but in a cute way. The back has a prayer journal type area which can be removed from the book. The chart has stickers the child can use to keep track of prayers and their answers. I wish the stickers were a little more clear that “no” and “wait” are answers as well as “yes” and reinforced it with the stickers. I’m afraid too many parents only believe God has answered prayers when he says “yes”. The stickers could unfortunately be used to reinforce the concept. Of the three books for young people though, I would say this is the one I love the most.
Yes, I just made up a new term. For the purposes of our discussion, social prayer is any opportunity your child is given to pray aloud in public. It could be as simple as praying before a meal or as difficult as praying privately with someone who is going through a devastating time.
As children begin to have independent prayer lives and study the bible, they begin to realize God is not the genie in the sky who must say yes to our every wish. Instead, God sometimes says “no” to us and our kids. Teaching your children how to understand and accept any and every “no” from God may mean the difference in whether or not they ultimately choose to follow Him.
Our world is a fast paced world. Kids are exposed to rapidly changing technology, images and an over scheduled lifestyle. It’s no wonder when God tells them to wait for something, they become impatient. Why not help God a bit? After all, surely God wants your children to have everything they want. Since He’s obviously busy, your kids can just start pushing things in the direction they are sure God would want – towards their desire.
Normally, I am not a huge fan of scripted prayers. I know the Holy Spirit provides the words I may not have and I tend to trust the process of prayer. Sometimes though, I believe parents want to feel more organized in their prayers. Even though they may firmly believe the Holy Spirit is providing words, on some level they want to be able to think clearly about what concerns them.
is a parent’s companion for understanding how to best pray for her son. The book contains seventy-seven prayers covering a wide range of subjects.