I have recently discovered the awesomness that is $5 deals at Family Christian Store. Every week (or so?) they have special books, CDs and DVDs on sale for $5. Remember, I picked up Have a New Kid By Friday when it was $5? This week I picked up two of my favorite books: The Hole in Our Gospel by Richard Stearns and For Women Only
Of course, I’ve heard of Stormie Omartian because she wrote The Power of a Praying Wife/Parent/etc. This kids’ book has adorable illustrations and is on a topic that you never see in kids’ books: prayer. I want my kids to know how and love to pray. And I think this book is going to be a good foundation.
It’s not a story. It’s really one page descriptions of different aspects of prayer: talking to God every day, use the Bible, thank him for family, pets, etc; talk to God like a friend and more. One of my favorite pages was about HOW to talk to God. She says, “Sometimes I talk out loud to God…but…He can even hear me when I talk silently to Him, when my words are only in my head!” When I read that line to Lydia, she looked at me with wide eyes! It was like the thought had never occurred to her! God can read her mind!
The other important part of the book is about timing of God’s answers. I hear so many people teach that God says, “yes, no or wait”. I get the idea. But I don’t think it’s a blanket Biblical statement. This book says, “It helps to remember that my job is to pray. God’s job is to answer my prayer. So I need to do my job and let God do His job.” How great is that?!
Each page ends with, “I say…” and then a prayer the child can repeat. Lydia has been a reluctant prayer–over food and at bedtimes. We’ve tried repeating after me, using a prayer chain, etc. But she never wants to do it from her own mouth. After reading his book, she prayed at bedtime!
I think I’m going to try to come up with an activity or two to go along with this book. Prayer is something we do–and I can feel it being just routine. I want my kids to know that their prayers have power!
How do you teach your child about prayer?
ooo – I like this! We haven’t talked about prayer any further than doing it with the boys, but I would like to give them some info on how important it is and how it works…
We made a daily prayer sheet numbered one through thirty one for each of our family. Each night we have something to pray about or for. Ranging from family members, to the lost, people in another country, and our church, neighborhood, etc. You can customize it to fit your family.
OOOh, I love that! What a good idea. Then if you missed a day, it would be easy to see who you missed! Thanks for the great comment!
a