Praying with your Children

Good Morning!

I am finishing up my morning wake up routine of breakfast, caffeine and email catch up, and wanted to share with you a new-to-me way of praying with my girls that I read about this morning, in the hopes that it gives you encouragement to try something similar!

We have a fun and full day ahead of us today, and it is so tempting to get started with it all and somehow skip our devotional time (although we almost never miss our morning wake up songs of Rise and Shine and This is the day that the Lord has made!). It is horrible and sad to admit that we sometimes skip circle time, but when they are this age (3 and 2), that is how the day goes sometimes. But, when we do it "right," it is such a blessing!

Last week, we had several morning devotionals/circle times that were awesome. What we have been doing is to begin with a few fun Christian songs. We have no shortage of Christian kids songs but our current favorites are Wee Sing Bible Songs, and a new 3 CD set with over 102 fun upbeat songs. We get out our huge basket of musical instruments and we play along and dance, while singing with the music. After we sing, we gather together and hold hands and pray. This has been a short prayer asking for guidance during the day and for Him to unite us in love with Him and with each other. Then we read a bible story, a devotion from my Kenneth Taylor children's devotional book and a Christian Nursery Rhyme. One time last week we read about 8 bible stories because Jordan kept saying, "I want to read the BIBLE!!!!" and I was NOT about to argue!

I am going to add a new element to our morning devotional time now. I had read earlier this week on Preschoolers and Peace about the ACTS (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving and Supplication) popcorn prayer, and then again today on Candace's site. I loved reading her post because she gave a very humorous example of how it goes in her home with three young ones, but this gave me inspiration. It will look very different in our home with the ages of our children, but it will be fun to start and if nothing else, it will help me to pray outside my box a bit.

So this morning we will try this out! We will sit in a circle and hold hands and I will begin by quickly explaining the different prayer types. I will then praise God for His holiness and His majesty. I will then most likely confess for my lack of patience this morning, and thank Him for blessing me with such an amazing family. I will ask Him to fill me with His love for my beautiful family, so that they can see and feel how truly special and loved they are. After each of these, I will pause to see if the girls jump in, but can pretty much expect them not to. After a few mornings of this, I might then ask them questions to help them formulate their thoughts and ideas.

I will keep you posted on how this goes!!

Have a blessed day, loving and enjoying your children and husband!