Is learning to pray important? I believe the answer to that question is, yes. Absolutely, yes!
We are told to “train up a child in the way they should go,” and that includes prayer.
We know we need to teach our children to pray and walk uprightly before the Lord.
You might say, “My kids already know how to pray.”
Great! That’s awesome! Prayer is simply communicating with God. But, are they going any deeper? Many children pray the same prayers they prayed as a toddler. I call them “cookie cutter” prayers. “Thank you, God, for this day. Please heal all the people in the hospital. Help us all have a good day. Amen”
The wonderful thing is, they are praying. We rejoice! But, when they don’t see any results from those prayers, they just continue going through the motions, when asked. If they can’t see an answer, their faith wavers. As they grow older they ask themselves, “What’s the use? God doesn’t hear my prayers anyway. Either he doesn’t love me or there is no God.”
I have seen this play out in many children through the years, over and over. Many of them are now adults with very little faith. When tough times came, they had no foundation to carry them through. Some of them had faith in a church or certain people. When the church or people failed them, their faith was gone.
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I recently read an article that says it better than I can by Becky Fischer in The Power of a Praying Child.
“First, prayer is our primary connection with God. It’s the tool by which we build our relationship with Him. When children are not taught to pray serious prayers they have no way of learning how to build upon that relationship. Then we are surprised when they become older and have not developed hearts for prayer. In fact, how often have you heard older children complain that prayer times are boring?”
“Second, it’s in prayer that we experience God’s presence. We learn to hear His voice and learn to obey and follow Him. Some surveys report that many children raised in Christian churches say that, as far as they know, they have never felt God’s presence or heard His voice. Could this be, in part, because we have never taught our children to pray in ways that can impact their lives?
“By contrast, the most amazing thing to me is how God uses and responds to children’s imperfect, stumbling prayers when they are properly taught.”
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Through Kingdom Kids, we are learning how to pray. We are starting to see some fruit from the prayers and teachings. I know that this is the very beginning. I believe the Lord is just waiting for us. I know that He loves and listens to the prayers of His children. He has told me over and over, “I just want the prayers of my children!” If God is asking for those prayers, I am confident He already has answers just waiting!!