Last week we learned that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. This means that everything began with God so we should make sure we start everything with God too!

Let’s think of ways we can do this.

1. We can sing a song like "This is the day" or "Jesus Loves me". What are some of your favorite songs about God or Jesus we can sing in the morning? Personally, we do this in the car on the way to school and the kids love it.

2. Another way we can begin with God is to pray. We have a simple prayer that we say in the car. I'll share it with as an example. "Thank you God for this day. Lead me to walk in your way. Keep me safe while I play. Thank you God for this day." It's simple enough that they were able to learn it pretty quickly and it's a simple way to start somewhere to develop a prayer habit for everyone.

3. read a scripture. Sometimes we memorize scriptures and we can use these or we can learn some more. What are some scriptures you can think to use?

• Mom offer some of your favorite scriptures as suggestions. Some of my personal favorites are “This is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it” Ps 118:24. We can also do “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me”, Phil 4:13. Another one can be “Choose this day who you will serve”, Joshua 24:15.

• Now think of ways you can work together to remember to read scripture i.e. leave one next to the toothbrush or on the car seat

Introducing how to pray

• First thing first, why do we pray?

Prayer is the way we talk to God. It is a great way to begin our meals, our bedtime and our day. He likes to hear from us so we can talk to Him anywhere, anytime because He is always listening and ready to hear us.  The more time we spend talking to Him the better we will get to know Him. 

• How do we teach them to pray?

Moms, we don’t need to make it complicated which as an adult I tend to do when I approach God in prayer! Tell them we can just talk to Him respectfully like they would talk to mommy.

• What should we pray about?

  • scriptures we are learning,

  • our worries

  • share the things that make us happy or sad.

  • we can ask Him to help us or others

  • tell Him we are sorry when we make a mistake.  

Allow them space to suggest things to talk with God about also.

Craft:

If you would prefer a more structured method to approach teaching your child how to pray, I like the HEART acronym (honor, examine, acknowledge, request, thanksgiving).

• Honor: Tell God that He is great; Awesome star

• Examine: ask God to show you what you don’t know you did wrong and ask for forgiveness

• Ask: Ask for needs you may have; ask for forgiveness, guidance, desires yours and His

• Remember: Remember others; the sick, the sad, the worried, the scared, leaders, teachers, family, friends

• Thanks: tell Him thanks for all He has done and what He will do. Thank Him for always being there and letting you know He is there for us always. Have your child think of other things to be thankful for. As a way to guide and remember some of the things to approach God in prayer I like to use the HEART acronym (honor, examine, ask, remember, thanksgiving).

You or your child can draw 5 hearts. Place one word from the heart acronym in each heart. Your child and then draw what each looks like to them. Then they can cut out the hearts for a personal copy to keep nearby as a reminder of things they can pray to God about.

Now to close out with the littles practice Gen 1:1. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

Prayerfully, together we can develop a habit of beginning with God as we remember He is in our beginnings.

Until next time,

Happy sowing!