Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Praying Parents

Recently I have been more and more mystified by the thought of prayer. After all, it is an open invitation to communicate with the One who created the stars and set the planets in place as well as designing every galaxy, known and unknown. That seems like a pretty big deal to me.

As parents, we make sure our kids get their picture taken with the Easter Bunny and wait a near eternity to sit on Santa’s lap because those guys are a pretty big deal to kids. Why? …because we have made them a big deal. Here is a valid question for each of us… How much do we make a big deal of sitting at the feet of the Creator of the universe?  Maybe our kids don’t value their connection with Him because we haven’t told them who He is. Possibly we have dropped the ball when it comes to showing them, by our example, that we can talk to Him about EVERYTHING any time we want!

Does it feel a bit awkward to you to pray with your kids? Most new things do feel awkward, like walking, eating solid foods, drinking from a cup, going potty in the toilet…. Need I go on?  If you expect to grow in your walk with the Lord, stop using the “awkward” excuse and start growing up in your faith! Talk to Jesus with your kids. About everything. He is the unseen member of your household. When He is brought into your conversations, they will likely take on a better complexion.

Let me help you get started …
In response to arguing kids… “God, you created us to love one another. Help our hearts to better understand how to love each other so we don’t fight.”
In response to the “gimme” phase… “God we know that the Bible tells us to be thankful. Help us to spend more time seeing what we have rather than seeing what we want so that we can live in an attitude of thankfulness.”
In response to fears… “God we know that fear comes from our minds so help us to crowd out the things that scare us by thinking about all the good things you have put in our lives, like puppies and kitties and…”

Ok, there is a start. When you learn to connect with God, it will become more and more natural for your kids to learn that connection. You aren’t imposing… remember what He suffered so that He can connect with us throughout eternity? TALK TO HIM!

“Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise.”
James 5:13

“Pray continually!”

 1 Thessalonians 5:17

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