Teaching kids to pray helps them get to know God on a heart level. Children talk naturally with their friends and family. Wouldn’t it be exciting if we could teach kids to pray and talk to God just as easily? The good news is that we can!
First kids need to understand what it means to “pray.” Consider what you communicate to young learners about prayer. Do kids know that:
- God is eager to listen to us! He wants to spend time with us because He loves us.
- God hears us anytime, anywhere. We don’t have to be sitting in church.
- We can talk to God like we talk to a friend. No “churchy” language is required.
- Anything is okay to talk to God about. Nothing is too big or small. God hears us when we’re sad, glad or mad.
- We can talk to God out loud or silently and in many ways: standing, sitting, kneeling, lying down.
A variety of techniques work well for teaching kids to pray. With some creativity, you can use just about any prayer technique with any children’s ministry topic. So feel free to mix and match.
7 Ideas for Teaching Kids to Pray
Here are a few ideas to adapt with Sunday school students:
1. Fill in the Blank (elementary)
Write a prayer sentence on the board, with a blank line in it. Kids take turns praying the sentence, filling in the blank with a phrase of their choice.
Variation for younger children: The leader prays aloud the first part of the prayer and then kids call out their endings.
Another variation: Pray the sentence all together at the same time. Each person fills in his or her own ending.
Here are some examples:
- Lord, I praise you for _____________.
- Jesus, help me remember your love for me when I ______________.
- God, please help me with_____________.
2. Litany (preschool and elementary)
One person prays a variety of phrases. The rest answer with a set response. Pray as many phrases as you want. But stop before kids lose interest. Examples:
(Leader) For mountains and rivers…
(Children) We thank you, God.
(Leader) For trees and flowers…
(Children) We thank you, God.
(Leader) When we’re scared…
(Children) Help us remember to pray.
(Leader) When we have a test…
(Children) Help us remember to pray.
3. Pass the Prayer (preschool and elementary)
Form a circle. The first person prays out loud, ends with “and,” and taps the person to the right. This person adds to the prayer with his or her own requests. Then they tap the next person right away if he or she doesn’t want to pray.
4. Person on the Right (preschool and elementary)
Form a circle. Ask each child to pray a set prayer for the person on the right, filling in the person’s name. If older kids are familiar with prayer? Give them the option of adding a prayer of their own for the person.
Examples:
- Thank you, God, for making (name) special
- Dear Jesus, help (name) stand up for what’s right this week with friends.
