Teaching Your Child to Pray

Hubby and I have been teaching Baby A to pray.  Before we eat, we both hold one of his hands and we also place a hand over his eyes, to teach him about closing his eyes during the prayer.  A few weeks ago, we had just eaten supper and were playing around on the couch and A. all of sudden grabbed my hand and placed my fingers on his eyes.  Then he waited a few seconds silently and say Amen!  It was so precious.  May you truly understand the power of prayer, sweet boy. Teach your child to pray.  Here are some tips from Teachers Of Good Things - Rejoicing in the Present

Here is how you teach your toddler and preschooler to pray:

• Demonstrate for them how easy it is to talk to God – When a child of any age hears their parents talking to the God they believe in for themselves, it is already instilled in the child that simple talking is how we pray.
• Encourage your toddlers to pray with you – Our three year old loves to pray at our meals and bedtime. We haven’t always understood the words, but we loved the demonstration of growing faith of the God we serve.  Just the other day, as we finished up praying together at bed time, he said to me for the first time, “Mommy, I want to see Jesus.”  My heart skipped a beat because he wants the relationship to be face to face now.
• Introduce the stages of prayers – Thankful for things from the food we eat, the gifts we have and the gorgeous day.  You know when you toddler or preschool has this one covered, because they want to thank God for everything and I do mean everything! Teach them to pray for healing by praying over their hurts, pain and sicknesses. Teach them to pray for forgiveness, by helping them to pray when they have sinned.  Teach them to pray for others by sharing prayer request with them and praying together.

When your day has prayer throughout it and it includes your children at their earliest age, this alone will be the tools needed to teach your toddlers and preschoolers to pray on their own.