Prayer Time and Lesson Time

This time is fundamental in any little child’s life. It will be the platform that they learn from to talk to their Almighty Father going forwards.  Therefore, do you see how vital it is to get it right, to teach it well.  After you have got over the enormity of that responsibility, remember that for some children they will never experience a person like you that is bringing God into their lives and starting their journey of faith off in prayer is such a great start.

So, as with all thing’s children, keep it simple.  Repeat the way you pray, don’t veer from it until you have a group that can fully comprehend the first way to pray. Explaining to them that we can always speak to God at anytime in our minds, will open them up to talking to God continually.

A long time ago, as people do, someone brought this little treasure into my life –

Teaspoon prayers

We use the “t”, the “s” and the “p” letters that are found in teaspoon!

I have done a whole lesson on this which included a craft which can be found under the lessons section.

The letters in teaspoon represent

T for thank you

S for sorry

P for please

If we teach these three basic ways to talk to God, they will remember them and who knows when stuck at any time later in life can pull on this early learning to speak to Our Father at any time. I consistently prayed the teaspoon prayer with children over a 12-year span, never changing and always sticking to how we should come to God.

I also have a lesson plan for teaching the Lord’s payer which can be done over a term and I found went well with slightly older children when I taught a Bible in Schools lesson weekly.

Thank you

We ask the children, what they have to be “thankful for”, usually you will have a barrage of answers shouted out, probably relating to what particular story you have just read to them.  Therefore, if you are doing creation, they will call out the animals the birds, the trees, the sun.  If, however you are teaching John the Baptist story for children, you will find the children are very grateful for locusts!

Children of this age group, often focus on their pets and are thankful for them, they are often thankful of their mothers, or their siblings, this part of your lesson is a beautiful time, it is a gift from God moment.  The children’s minds are expressions are so free and uninhibited that they will shower you with verbal treasures during this time.  Prayer time overall is a special time, what needs to be looked out for is the quiet child, looking thoughtful, the deep thinker!  You will find that if you have children from broken homes or where the parents live apart they often use this time to bring up a missing parent or a sadness, time and attention needs to be spent on this but not always in a group situation.  See my one to one time resource for help.

Sorry

This is where we lead the children in a time of saying sorry, the reason being we all do things that are wrong, I often use this time as an example of when I have got things wrong during the week.  I say “gosh this week I shouted at someone and I shouldn’t have, that was wrong” I tell them I said sorry to the person (using my child as the example) but explaining that I also need to say “sorry” to God.  I explain that we all need to say sorry daily and it helps God know our hearts and how we are feeling.  I ask the group –“what do you need to say sorry for”, there is often a silence here, I may say “what have you done that is wrong this week”, if there is a continued silence (which often there isn’t) you can congratulate your group on doing absolutely nothing wrong!  However, I will then introduce some ideas that they catch on with, however it important to not imprint things that they never would have done like obvious things like stealing or using harmful terms.  I have to say I have never had a group that hasn’t fessed up on hitting their brother or sister. Fighting with their siblings becomes a common thread at this age group.  Once again listen out for the “I’m sorry for Daddy” statements, this usually translates to “I am sorry for me as I don’t see Daddy”, this can be explored on a one to one time, see the resource for this.

Please

The final question is what we want to ask God for, we can explain to the Children that God cares for us and wants the very best for us. So, if we ask for something that we want, and God does not think it will be good for us then we probably will not get it.  I joke with the children, what if I asked God for a pet elephant? Would he think this would be good for me? Elephants make such a mess of our houses; I do not think God would think it would be good for me to be riding an elephant down the road!  At this age I do not think conceptually they are ready for the difference between bringing your needs versus your wants to God, so I steer clear of this.  You will find at the younger age, children are not naturally materialistic, this is something they learn later, these little minds are really only focused on their immediate needs, food, drink, warmth, happiness, love and care from parents. It is important at the please section to not lead them in anyway, it would be wrong to introduce things they may want.  Keeping it about real things and not material things is the way to go here, for example, I would say, “well I am going out next week and I would really like the sun to shine”, then they will copy saying “I want the sun to shine”, (see how easily it would be to lead them down the wrong path), always stay away from pets, “I want a puppy” you will not be thanked for by the parents.  I like to keep it on real things like “Please can my friends come to church on Sunday”, “Please can we remember to pray to God when we are at home”, “Please God help us when we are up on stage at Big Church next week”.  The Please being the end of the teaching, the children are usually getting restless so moving swiftly through this part is a must.

Having got a few “thank you’s”, “sorry’s” and “pleases” from the group you can then start your little prayer in front of the group.  We can teach them this –

“We are going to pray”

“Lets put our hands together, close our eyes and always remember that God is listening to our minds”

Then I would pray the Thank you God, The we are Sorry God and Please God and end with and we all say together “AMEN.”

I have over the years taught the children to shoot their little hands that are together upwards when we say AMEN, so that they know that we are about to move onto something different.