Communication is an essential part of living. Babies communicate their hunger by crying. Children learn basic words so they can notify their parents when they need something. We go through elementary school where we are taught how to communicate with our limited vocabulary. As we progress through high school and into college we are taught how to use words effectively and persuasively. Even into our adult life; whether working in sales, teaching mathematics, or operating a crane we are constantly communicating.

Communication makes life easier for us and when we can’t communicate life can become very difficult. Take the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11) for example; people sinfully wanted to build a tower to reach up to the heavens so they could make themselves great. Up to this point everyone on earth spoke the same language so it was easy for them to communicate and work together to reach their objective. God saw what they were doing and wanted to stop them so he gave each person their own language, making it near impossible for them to communicate. When their communication failed, so did their plans of building a giant tower.

The same is true when it comes to communicating with God. Jesus has given his disciples 24/7 access to communicate with the Father (Ephesians 2:18) and this is meant for our good.  We call this prayer. When we pray to God it doesn’t mean that life will get magically easier, but it does mean that we can know that God is with us and we can turn to him in our times of need (Psalm 46:1).

As parents, it is essential for us to teach and train our children how to pray to our Heavenly Father. We want our kids to know that God is with them and will teach them to walk in his way. Below are a few suggestions to help you teach your children how to pray.

Routine. In a nut shell, make it a routine and be consistent with it. Identify a few places throughout the day where you are going to pray every day. This could be every time you meet at the dinner table, as you drop your kids off at school, during devotional time, before bed, etc…

Prepare. Help your kids think through who/what they should be praying for. Ask for one thing they can thank God for, one thing that they need God’s help with, and one person they should pray for. After doing this for a while kids will learn how to pray on their own.

Position. Rather than just praying while we are on-the-go all the time (which is a good thing to do), we should also teach our kids what it looks like to be quiet before the Lord and devote our full attention to him. While you pray together have your kids give God attention by folding their hands, quieting their mouths, closing their eyes and keeping their bodies still.

Short & Simple. Prayer doesn’t need to be a long, complicated and boring thing. We want to teach our kids the value of prayer. So based on their age, attention span and understanding we would do well to make are prayers short and simple. 

written by Samuel Schmidt