Do Your Kids Pray?

That's right! Do your kids pray?

This is an interesting question considering that many parent are busy looking for ways of providing their kids with the basic necessities of life (food, shelter, clothing, good education etc). Most of the time it seems that they only manage to satisfy the material needs of their kid's life but not their spiritual needs.

Is teaching your kids how to pray right up in your list of priorities? If not pleasse consider adding it because it's one of the most important if not the no.1 priority in educating your children!

WHY?

1. Human beings are a religious by nature. They have a material side and a spiritual side.
   
   Man must worship something, whether it be the one true God or a rock it doesn't matter.
   
   Unfortunately kids also sooner or later will realize that they too need to worship something. This is where their parents come in. They have to satisfy the kids craving for worship,and give it some form of direction, otherwise they will join some weird cult later on in life!
   
2. Their religious education, like anything else in life, will first be introduced to them by their parents. If the parents do not feel responsible enough to instruct their kids about religion, well like everything else, they'll learn it from the guys in the streets! You know what that means!
   
3. While food nourishes the body, prayer nourishes the soul. You, the parents give them the food to develop their bodies, - God through a life of prayer nourishes their soul.
   
4. Prayer is the foundation for other very important values that any good parent may want to impart onto his kids. One important one is that it fosters a good relationship with God.

A good relationship with God ensures that:

a) The kids understand who they are in relation to, who God is - basically that we are all children of God - yes including mum and dad!

b) The kids understand where they are ultimately headed. That they are all wayfarers. That they are born into this world, live in it and eventually die. It seem that there is somewhere else where we all still must get to. This is a reality that kids must learn to handle, and parents must guide them through it!

c) The kids understand what their responsibility a kids is meant to be while they are till here on earth. How they should relate with others beginning with their own parents, then their siblings, their friends in the neighborhood and in school and eventually with everyone else.

d) The kids understand that faithfulness to God's will comes first before everything else. That even obedience to their parents and everyone else in authority is only lawful in so far a it conforms to what God wants.

HOW?

Well, for parent to be able to help their kids pray well...!

They have to pray well themselves! Kids learn more from what they see their parents do than from what they hear their parents tell them to do. If parents don't pray - kids can see through that!

Some tips!

a) Have a fixed time for daily family prayer.
b) Have all family members participate.
c) Make the prayers short - maximum 20 minutes
d) Teach prayers that the kids can learn and repeat by themselves. This helps them pray even when you are not around.

Examples could be:

• Prayers said before meals
• Prayers said after meals
• Prayers said at bedtimes
• Prayers said when the kids get up in the morning. (should be short - not more than a minute).

e) Teach them how to read the Bible (5 mins) and some good spiritual book (10 mins).
f) Attend church service together as a family.
g) Monitor them. Provide counseling where necessary.

You can only handle the material aspects of your kids' upbringing. Let God handle the spiritual. Provide your kids with the link to God. That link is prayer!

© George Ochieng

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Credits: Family Content