Teaching Prayer

Last week, I discussed the benefits of praying with your children. But the question may have crossed your mind, "But how do I teach my child to pray?" The truth is? You teach your children to pray, but simply modeling that prayer is a form of conversation and that the Person they are talking with, hears them and responds through different ways.

1. The ACTS model of prayer
1. A: Adoration. Spend time talking about the attributes of God. Talk about God creating the heavens and the earth and all that is within them. Talk about how God sees everything all at the same time and that it doesn't overwhelm Him. Discuss that God hears every prayer. This way children experience the many things that God is and begin to understand that He's more than just one attribute that we focus on.
2. C: Confession. It is hard to focus on confession during prayer even as adults. But if you begin to cultivate this spirit within your children at an early age, they will begin to see that when they mess up, they can talk to a Forgiving God about what they have done and He will forgive them.
3. T: Thanksgiving. Through thanksgiving we thank God for the people and things that we have. Our response to all that God has given us should, at the very least, inspire our worship and praise, and should very well inspire us to respond by giving back.
4. S: Supplication. This is where we pray for areas where we long for God to work on our lives, and also in the lives of others. After we have entered into a spirit of awe, humility, and thanksgiving, what we find ourselves praying for very well may change from a laundry list, to just a few things. We soon begin to realize that we can rely on God for who He is and that He has our best intentions in mind.