Talking to God

The boys know a number of Bible stories, they can recite several Bible verses, they are “reading” their Bibles on a regular basis, and they are truly growing in faith and spirit, and yet I began to wonder if there were simple truths of our faith that they were missing, and so I decided to do something a bit different during our devotional time this year. Instead of continuing with our regular devotions which focused largely on Bible stories and developing Godly character, this year, we are going to explore prayer, the Lord’s prayer, the Ten Commandments, and other specifics of our Christian faith outlined in the Children’s Catechism.

Our first unit: prayer, is developing into a fascinating exploration of spontaneous prayer, praise, thanksgiving, and petition. We are using a variety of picture books, beginning of course, with Taylor’s Am I Praying? and another cute discussion of prayer, I Can Talk with God by Debby Anderson. We will be learning the ACTS approach to prayer: adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication. Another homeschooling mom sent me a fascinating file with a fill-in-the-blank form letter for each of the types of prayer in the PRAYS model: praise, repentance, adoration, yielding, and supplication. I will be using a modified version of these letters to familiarize the boys with each part of the ACTS prayer and to help them develop their own style of prayer. Watch for more about these letters in future posts.

Of course, no unit on prayer is complete without learning the prayer Jesus taught the disciples when they implored, “Lord, teach us how to pray” (Luke 11:1). The boys are working to memorize the Lord’s Prayer. As the Lord’s Prayer contains a number of large, unfamiliar words, we are reading children’s books written to explain the Lord’s Prayer to young Christians. The sparkling pages of Baby Blessings’ The Lord’s Prayer for Children are a favorite with Connor. My Very Own Book of the Lord’s Prayer by Rosalie Turner is another good read for children; this book is currently out of print, but is available used at amazon.com. Cheri Fuller’s When Children Pray, an excellent read for parents wanting to make prayer meaningful for their children, contains an easy-to-follow model for using the Lord’s Prayer to teach children to pray as well.

For a bit of fun in the midst of our unit, the boys and I are going to decorate prayer journals and bake soft pretzels. The first pretzels were made by monks who gave them as rewards to children who had learned their prayers. The word pretzel means reward; the twisted shape resembles the folded arms of a child praying. And finally, to pull our unit together, we’ll compile a lapbook to document our studies and provide a reminder of the ACTS approach, some of the Hebrew names of God and their meanings (which are used in the PRAYS letters), a mini book of the Lord’s Prayer, and a mini first prayer journal. Be sure to watch for updates as we progress further with our study of prayer.