{"id":8893,"date":"2017-05-24T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-05-24T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites-stage.familylife.com\/flministries\/?p=8893"},"modified":"2017-05-24T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-05-24T00:00:00","slug":"training-our-children-to-pray","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/articles\/topics\/parenting\/foundations\/spiritual-development\/training-our-children-to-pray\/","title":{"rendered":"Training Our Children to Pray"},"content":{"rendered":"
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We certainly spend a lot of time teaching our children how to put their clothes away, change the toilet paper roll, and say please and thank you. Teaching them to pray is even more important!<\/p>\n

I began teaching my children to pray when they were very small, but as they grew, I realized the need for more instruction in prayer when I began to notice repetition in their nightly prayers. For several nights in a row, they prayed, \u201cLord, I just thank you for this wonderful day today, and I pray we\u2019d have a wonderful day tomorrow. Amen.\u201d So I decided to ask them if they had anything else they wanted to talk to God about.<\/p>\n

I noticed that if I made suggestions, they were very open to adding them, but they were reluctant to initiate deeper conversation with their Maker. So I concluded that perhaps they needed intentional training in prayer.<\/p>\n

The truth is, all of our children need intentional training in prayer. Other than teaching them simple prayers they can memorize and recite, which is often what we do with very young children, what might intentional training in prayer look like?<\/p>\n

Follow Jesus\u2019 example<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Though Jesus modeled prayer, He also gave His disciples some practical training in how to do it. Both Matthew and Luke record a teachable moment when Jesus told His disciples how to pray.<\/p>\n

In Matthew 6, Jesus initiates the lesson by teaching them what prayer is not. Basically, He tells them:<\/p>\n