Praying with Children: The Power of Prayer
I have three children, eleven, ten and two. My daughter, who is ten, would love to hear me sing as I settled her into bed at night. she’d often fall asleep to the sound of me singing to her. Not because I am amazing at singing or anything, but it would absolutely bring her comfort. I would usually start with the more popular songs that she enjoyed singing in nursery school. Then, as she settled, I would begin to sing songs that I made up on the spot. They were usually prayers, so I suppose it was my way of praying with her in a different way. Now that she’s ten, she doesn’t want me to sing to her anymore. I miss that, but she does want me to pray with her. Now and again I will even hear her singing her own songs that she’s made up herself. Nothing is wasted.
Praying and Singing using Scripture
I pray that your children will write or pray their own prayers and sing songs of thanks and praise in their own personal ways. I am now singing songs to my two-year-old. He drifts off into a peaceful sleep as the scripture pours out into his heart and mind. Pretty much from the moment he was born, in fact, before he even entered the world, I’ve been singing the verse from Psalm 139. ‘You are fearfully and wonderfully made’, and Psalm 23, ‘The LORD my Shepherd I shall not want, he makes me lie in pastures green, he leads me by the still waters, your goodness will lead me home.’ A couple of weeks ago, we were having our family time of prayer together. It’s not what it sounds like. We don’t all sit around a cross and pray together. It’s not formal. Let’s face it, we have three young children who often get uncontrollable giggles, ‘accidentally’ elbow each other on the settee, or start playing with a talking Thomas the Tank Engine. All intention is there, and more to the point, Jesus is with us. During our prayer time our little boy started walking around the living room singing Psalm 23! It was quite frankly amazing; in fact my daughter filmed him. All these little efforts in parenting, and all the nuggets of joy, God sees. ‘Nothing is wasted’ are the words that came to me during my beach walk this morning. Nothing is wasted. Keep making up songs. Keep gathering for prayer and bible readings, even if it seems like it’s not making a difference, it really is.
God Sees You
I have decided to share one of the songs that I recently sang to our youngest son. I hope that your family will be blessed by it. Whether you read it or sing it, it’s entirely up to you, but I’ve indicated when the verses were repeated. This is the only song I’ve written down, it’s not perfect, but it is special to me. We believe that God sees us. Our family wants to live out our faith in Jesus every day in the best way we can, whilst we are surrounded by many different circumstances. Be encouraged today that God sees you too and knows your hearts.
I hope you enjoy the Simple prayer to thank Jesus for every blessing:
Thank you, Jesus, for being our helper, for your unfailing love and for never leaving us.
Thank you, Jesus, for teaching us, and holding us when we don’t understand.
Thank you, Jesus, for healing us, and renewing us. We praise you!
Help us to feel your light (x 3)
Oh Lord.
Singing from the rooftops, revealing your joy,
Making you known to the world, removing veils, breaking chains, bringing down strongholds, all through your power.
Renewing the mind and seeing breakthrough (x 3)
Your way is the TRUTH,
Your way is the LIGHT,
Your way is LIFE.
In the name of Jesus, Amen.
‘Therefore, my beloved brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain.’ (1 Corinthians 15:58, NIV)