The kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these. Truly.
Sometimes the earnest prayer of a small child is the perfect model. This is a reminder that prayers don’t have to be elaborate, only heartfelt.
Jesus, we love You, and we love this beautiful world You’ve given us. Help us to steward it better. Thank You for our lives – be they to the ‘ripe old age of 30’, or 80 or 90. Thank You. Teach us to number our days and make the most of our time. Help us to love you as wholly and easily as a child. In Your name, amen.
My kids love taking turns praying over our family’s meals, but my preschooler struggles to know what to say. To help him, we created a prayer for him to repeat.
“Dear God, thank You for this food, and please help us to grow big and strong…”
He can end there, saying “Jesus, God, Amen” (his version of ‘In Jesus’ Name, amen’), or he can add to that basic prayer if he has more to say. His older brother always has more to say when it is his turn, but sometimes that simple prayer is enough for my preschooler. Having a standardized prayer takes the pressure off of him to be creative and keeps the focus on the habit of prayer before meals.
I sympathize with my son’s struggle because I, too, have a hard time knowing what to say when I pray.
Fitness circles will tell you if you want to start jogging and eating healthy you should prep healthy snacks and lay out your jogging clothes so that the practices are that much easier. I’ve applied this same idea to prayers by writing out several prayers for myself, sort of a meal-prep for prayer. Figuring out what to say ahead of time allows me to cultivate the habit of prayer without being distracted but what to say.
Do you struggle with prayer? I’ll be sharing several prayers over this summer to help you get started. Prayer should be a daily habit, and we shouldn’t let a little thing like words keep us from approaching the throne of our Heavenly Father.
Exploring Everyday Faithfulness 