Many of you are familiar with Hermie, the protagonist caterpillar in Max Lucado’s children’s series. The newest Hermie book we received is God Listens When I Pray.
On his way to Grannypillar’s house, Hermie encounters a friend in an emergency situation. He tries to get someone to come help, but no one will even listen to him. Then God reminds him that He always listens when we pray. Appreciative of the reminder, Hermie and his friend pray about the situation, and God helps.
This is a very sweet story and, ‘though using “bugs” as the characters, uses largely realistic situations to point out not only that God listens to us, but also some of the ways that we get distracted from the need to listen to others. Sophia enjoyed the story and – I think – understood the message.
Check it out:
Would you like to win a copy for your little ones? Then join the discussion: we’re talking about how you teach your children to pray.
As for us…well, of course we teach our children all throughout the day, but our main teaching time is at bedtime. At bedtime we read a chapter of Scripture, and then we take turns praying. The girls hear us model a variety of prayers, and they start in as soon as they are able. At first, we just encourage them to say, “thank you, God,” and/or, “I love you, God,” because they can’t talk much! As they get older and expand their prayers, we occasionally take the opportunity to point out specific things they could be praying for, or “categories” of prayer they may be neglecting, so they can learn to not be all about requests. 🙂
Share your methods/story in the comments!
Disclosure: As a “Tommy Mommy,” I received the book above from Thomas Nelson. Thomas Nelson is also sponsoring this giveaway. As always, all opinions expressed here are my own (and those of my family).
I enjoying teaching my kids to memorize scripture and praying with them at bedtime.
We try to pray before bed and make it a habit
annejk112233 at yahoo dot com
We start to teach our little girl with praying before meal and bed time, then we take her to our weekly prayer meeting at church and now we have twice a week prayer meeting one. Of course she won’t stay sit for a long time during the prayer time at church meeting, but she is learning.
mainly, we try to teach them through demonstration. We pray before family meals and when we want to praise a good thing or ask God for help
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We make it a part of our daily life.
BY EXAMPLE
I pray with them. Sometimes they ask me to pray for certain things and I give them ideas. They don’t like to pray out loud so I will with them.
I taught Gracie to pray just by her watching/hearing me pray aloud
Both my boys are under 5, so right now we just teach them by example. We pray in the morning, before meals and before bed. We have also told them that they should pray whenever they feel the need to. We pray out loud when we are struggling or just want to thank God.
Thank you
I teach them to pray for others who are in need. I also tell them that God is always there to listen. They can talk to God just like a friend whenever they wish.
They hear us pray and then we have them say them with us.
vmkids3 at msn dot com
We lead by example, a family that prays together stays together!
It’s modeled for them often. We talk about thankfulness and gratefulness putting that into heartfelt prayers. We also talk about needs to pray about, for others and for ourselves.
We pray every night before bed have been since they were born so i guess they were born into it