We’ve been praying with Juliet ever since she was a tiny baby. Every night before she goes to bed, all three of us get together and have a family prayer time. And although, we have made a habit out of this, the actual process we go through has evolved over the years.

When she was an infant, Ben would hold her in his arms and we would stand together and pray with her before placing her in her crib at night. Our prayers would always be about her and about how grateful we were to God for sending her into our lives.

As she began to understand and speak herself, we added praying for others to our prayer time–for our family members, friends, and Compassion children.

To help her get involved in the praying, I decided to borrow an idea from Ben’s family and also from some missionary friends of ours.

Ben grew up with the tradition of placing all the Christmas cards his family received into a basket and then choosing one card at every mealtime. The family would then pray specifically for the family on the Christmas card. Our missionary friends do something similar. They have family photos of all of their supporters and then choose one a day to pray for. My friend Kristi tells me that her kids really connect to the photos and are able to pray more specifically when they can see who they are praying for.

I wanted to make our prayer time more concrete for Juliet and also give her a way to feel like she was part of the process, so I searched for a box that would be our “prayer box.”

It’s an old cigar box that I had picked up awhile back and didn’t know what to do with it. It said “Julieta”, so I couldn’t resist! I thought it was beautiful and it is the perfect size for holding pictures.

Inside, you can see we keep photos of our family members, friends, and Compassion children. Every night, Juliet reaches in selects who we are praying for and then holds it in her hands as we pray. She LOVES it!

We have a lot of Christmas cards in the box and also a few birth announcements. For our family members, I tried to print out pictures of them with Juliet in the picture as well. This always makes her smile when she sees herself with Mimi or Poppy or one of her cousins.

Lately, our process has changed again. Instead of drawing a picture from the prayer box, we simply ask Juliet who we should pray for tonight. Each night, she comes up with someone new! She has grown out of the prayer box–as she no longer needs a visual cue to help her decide who to pray for. And she has even begun to chime in and add her own thoughts to our prayers!

And even though I am kind of sad to see it fall into disuse, I am happy to see my daughter growing and able to take an active role in our nightly prayer time. And I’m sure I’ll be able to find another use for that beautiful box.

What about you? How do you get your children to pray with you? Do you have any family routines or traditions?

It has taken me a whole month to even begin my New Year’s goal of waking up before my kids. Asa regularly wakes up at…wait, he doesn’t REGULARLY wake up. Some days its 5:30, sometimes 6:00 and when we’re really lucky it’s 6:30. Nonetheless, I was feeling grumpy regardless of when he woke, I was taking showers at 5:45pm and not getting my day started until naptimes!

So, I bit the bullet and decided I had to wake up early. I wasn’t so deluded to think that I’d shower, exercise and make breakfast before the kids woke up. Oh no, I just decided I had to get up early enough to do ONE of those things. I didn’t care which one.

I’m going to be completely honest and say that this is only the 2nd day I’ve woken up early. I was staring at my clock at 5:59 this morning. Begging it to stay there. Finally at 6:02 I crawled out of bed, grabbed a blanket, my Bible and a notebook and sat at the kitchen table.

I wrote a little, read a little and then decided I’d make a list of people and situations to pray for. Then I remembered! I have a calendar of prayer points—to pray for your children. And who else do I want (NEED) to pray for than my kids? You’d think as a mom, you’d pray for your kids all the time, right? Sure, I pray for them. But mostly it’s, “please let him stop crying.” OR “please help me figure out how to help her obey” and “God is great, God is good…”.

Today’s prayer was labeled: SALVATION.

*sigh*

Isn’t that my goal? Isn’t that the reason I stay home? Teach my kids Bible stories? Do crafts? Play games? Sing songs? I do these things to show them Jesus so they will look for and receive SALVATION from Him! And I thought this getting up early thing was going to be so I could get a shower in! The prayer was a simple one based on Isaiah 45:8 and 2 Timothy 2:10…

Lord, let salvation spring up within my children that they may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory.

So. Now my goal in the morning is not to get a shower, to make breakfast or to do yoga. It’s to pray for my kids. It’s to read that little prayer, get it into my heart and mind so I can focus on it the rest of the day. So I can do my “job” of being a mother with the leadership of Jesus.

And for the record? This morning I read my Bible, exercised, took a shower AND made breakfast before the kids got up!

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More amazing and totally worth your time resources to help you pray for your children:

Prayer Calendar from Mom and Loving It {scroll down, it’s a pdf on the bottom of the page}

The Power of a Praying Parent by Stormie Omartian {her blog is filled with resources, too!}

Inspired to Action blog and free ebook, Maximize Your Mornings {you MUST click and look around. such good stuff.}

Seven Prayers a Day at Bring the Rain

Lifting Hands {a prayer-a-day blog. it’s not updated daily this year, but you can use the previous years!}

Praying for Our Children by The Other Mama

Heather from Not a DIY Life is guest posting for us today! She is a long time reader, commenter and tweeter of Impress your Kids. But more importantly she is a wonderful mama raising her daughter for the Lord. Heather blogs at Not a DIY Life and believes that life is not meant to be a Do-It-Yourself project . Please follower her on twitter and read her daily updates about her life and daughter. You will be encouraged!

Father, we thank You for the night,
And for the pleasant morning light.
For rest and food and loving care
For friends who make the day so fair.

One of many familiar prayers that we can teach our children.  But how do we teach them that prayer is more than reciting a cute rhyme before meals and at bedtime?  (There is nothing wrong with memorizing and reciting rhyming prayers, and we will be teaching our daughter The Lord’s Prayer because we say that prayer at church.)  How do we teach our children to communicate authentically with our Heavenly Father?

Prayer at its core is conversation with God.  Conversation includes both talking and listening.  Since our daughter, Ladybug is 28 months, I really don’t expect her to understand the listening part of prayer yet.  But we are enjoying the talking part of prayer together.

Our first step in teaching Ladybug to pray was to include prayer as part of our bedtime routine.  Kids thrive on routine.  We keep the bedtime prayer simple, using words that she will understand without “talking down” to God.

Our bedtime prayer includes holding hands, bowing our heads, and closing our eyes.  She knows that is the posture for prayer.  So anytime we say, “It’s time to pray,” whether at mealtimes or in church, she knows to be quiet, hold hands, and bow her head.

We include people that Ladybug knows in our bedtime prayers as well.  She recognizes the names and will repeat them.  And if we leave someone off the list, she reminds us, “Pray Baby Erin, Mama.”

Because we acknowledge what she says during prayer time, she is learning that she can participate in prayer and that prayer is not only for someone special like our pastor, but for everyone.

We usually pray together at mealtimes as well.  For our family of three, that is the norm.  But in some in our extended family do not have this practice.  Because family members know that we pray, there is sometimes an awkward moment or two when gathered for a family meal.  Ladybug has broken that awkwardness many times, with her cute toddler voice saying, “Pray, Mama, pray, Daddy.”  What doting aunt or uncle can continue to feel uncomfortable when their adorable niece is asking us to pray?  Ladybug is learning, through the practice of prayer, that it is important to share our faith with others.  (And it makes this Mama want to cry tears of joy when she does that!)

Although we are firm that we pray together at mealtimes and bedtimes, Ladybug does catch us off guard and ask to pray at other times.  And of course, we stop what we are doing and pray!  Even if it’s the third time in a row, stopping to pray teaches her that God is available anytime.

When she sees either myself or Hubby in our prayer posture (head bowed, eyes closed), she knows that we are praying and asks to be included.  She is learning so much by observing our practice of prayer!  I feel that including Ladybug in our prayer times and allowing her to observe our prayer life is one of the most valuable ways that she can learn.

How are you teaching your child to pray?

photo by wesley fryer

A few weeks ago my dad began an almost year-long medical treatment for Hepatitis C. Every Friday he gives himself a shot and then every day after that he takes oral medication. His liver is in the final stages of Hepatitis C and without this medication, his liver will stop functioning. And of course, that would mean death for my dad. For Daddy.

For the first few weeks, Daddy’s only side effects were fevers, a little bit of nausea and flu like symptoms. Then last week, my mom called me and said that Daddy had a bad night. He had passed out in the hallway in the middle of the night. He was minimally responsive, turning shades of grey and yellow. She called 911 and when he finally got to the doctor, they ordered a CAT scan and blood tests.

We were relieved to see the CAT scan results come back normal, liver enzyme tests return with positive results and blood tests looking better. The only problem he is now facing is about blood platelets. A normal person has about 150,000 (I think!). Daddy has about 70,000. So, this is making him very fatigued–because his blood isn’t bringing oxygen and other nutrients to his body.

As you can imagine, this has been a huge ordeal in our family. We’ve been having daily phone conversations, I’ve been emailng friends, cooking food and anything else I can think of. When Mama called me about that horrible night, I was crying on the phone. And my 3 1/2 year old Lydia was standing right there.

She has seen and heard a lot of scary things about one of the people she loves best in the world: Papa. I’ve tried to shield her from most of it. But when we’re at his house and he’s laying on the bed instead of playing with her, it’s easy to see that something is wrong.

We will be playing or driving and she’ll randomly ask me a question like, “What’s plates?” (As in “platelets”.) Or “Did Papa have a bad night?” She’s been playing doctor more than usual with her animals having Hepatitis C and needing medicine five times a day. It breaks my heart!

So, I’ve been trying to figure out how I can best reassure her and comfort her from God’s Word concerning healing for Papa. Of course, we pray for him regularly–every time we think of it–even in the middle of the grocery store. But the other night a God moment happened…

We have picked up The Jesus Storybook Bibleas our before-bed book again. We usually read a random story out of it once a week, but right now we’re reading it straight through. The story that night was, A Little Girl and a Poor Frail Lady (from Mark 5). I’m going to briefly tell you the story…because you may know the two stories separately, but when you read them together, there is something powerful about them:

Jairus had a daughter who was very ill. He decided to find Jesus and see if he would heal her. When Jairus found Jesus, he immediately left with Jairus. Now, on their way to Jairus’ house, the crowd was pressing in on Jesus and his disciples were acting the body-guard on him when suddenly Jesus stopped and said, “WHO TOUCHED ME?”

This is hilarious to me because Hello? Who says that? Much less in the middle of a crowd? Even if the crowd wasn’t big, there was at least his 12 disciples and Jairus, right? The disciples thought the same thing and were like, “What in the world are you talking about?”

But the Bible says Jesus said this because “he felt the power go out of him” (*shiver*). He turns around and there is this woman who has been sick for TWELVE years. She has been sick with a blood disease and had spent all her money on doctors—doctors that could not help. She tells Jesus her story and explains that she knew if she just touched his clothes she would be healed. Jesus looks at her and says, “Your faith has made you well.”

OK, so all this time of Jesus trying to find out who touched him and a bloody woman kneeling before Jesus, Jarius has to be freaking out! You know he’s thinking, “JESUS! Come on! My daughter!!!” Sure enough, right then one of Jairus’ servants comes to him and says, “It’s too late. She’s dead.” I cannot imagine Jarius’ shock and pain.

But Jesus doesn’t listen to the servant. He goes to the house and tells the mourners there, “I’m going to wake her up.” And they LAUGH at him. They LAUGH AT JESUS. The Bible says “he put them all out”. He didn’t want their mockery and doubt near him. So, he puts them outside and walks upstairs to the little girl. He holds her hand and says, “Get up.” She does. And then Jesus tells them to give her something to eat!

So, anyway, we are reading this story in the The Jesus Storybook Bibleand Lydia is enthralled. I don’t think she remembered ever hearing it before. When we got to the part about the woman touching Jesus’ coat she interrupted me.

I can’t remember exactly what she said or asked but she made the motion of touching Jesus’ coat. And we talked about Papa. How Papa had been sick with Hepatitis C for several years. How the doctors didn’t know how to make him well. We talked about how powerful Jesus is—that someone could just touch his clothes and be well. We talked about how easy it was for the woman to receive healing from Jesus–just by touching his coat. Then Lydia made the motion again—reaching out to grab Jesus’ coat. At a three year old level (which may be a better and more faith-filled level than my 32 year old level) she understood and believed Jesus. She knew that Jesus healed and connected it to the need of her Papa.

The story ended with, “Jesus was making the sad things come untrue, mending God’s broken world.” And ever since we read that story it’s stuck with me–the similarities of the woman’s blood disease and my dad’s. The relationship of a father and daughter. The faith of a woman. The Power and Love of a Savior.

:: :: ::

If you have not bought and read the Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd Jones, you MUST. The Jesus Storybook Bible Deluxe Editionis coming out in October and includes the complete book on audio. The audio is read by David Suchet and you can even hear a few of the stories including A Little Girl and a Poor Frail Lady on the new Jesus Storybook Bible website.  I cannot recommend this book more highly. It’s more than a bedtime story or a kids’ Bible story book. It is an introduction to Jesus and his Never Stopping, Never Giving Up, Unbreaking, Always and Forever Love.

photo from The Jesus Storybook Bible. Illustrated by Jago.

All verses are taken from the New International Reader’s Version.

What amazing promises are there in God’s Word for those who cry out to Him, who call out to Him in prayer!

Psalm 18:6
When I was in trouble, I called out to the Lord. I cried to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice. My cry for help reached his ears.

Psalm 34:17
Godly people cry out, and the Lord hears them. He saves them from all of their troubles.

Psalm 57:2
I cry out to God Most High. I cry out to God, and he carries out his plan for me.

Psalm 88:13
Lord, I cry out to you for help

Psalm 119:147
I get up before the sun rises. I cry out for help. I’ve put my hope in your word.

My husband and I started crying out to the Lord for our children before we had them, and we continue to lift them up to the Lord, covering them in prayer.  We wanted to make prayer an important part of their lives, so from infancy, we have prayed out loud over them.  We pray at mealtimes and at bedtime.  We encourage prayer throughout the day, and the boys frequently hear me call out to the Lord for help during the day (mostly for patience…).

We started hearing Elias cry out to the Lord just after he turned two.  While he was sitting in time out one evening, we heard, “PLEASE, LORD! PLEASE, LORD! Make me better!” in the middle of his sobs.  Our hearts broke as we heard his call to the Lord, and we thanked the Lord for the encouragement we drew from Elias’s little prayer.

Elias continues to cry out to the Lord – frequently in time out – and his prayers swing from a self-centered 3 year old’s prayer (“Please make Donovan give me back my car!”) to prayers of repentance (“Please make me better so I don’t hit Donovan anymore!”).  His time out prayers still begin with the loud cry, “PLEASE, LORD! PLEASE, LORD!”

I learn so much from his prayers – the simple prayers of a child.  They are simple, but they are exactly what the Lord wants – the cry of his heart.

Psalm 142:5
Lord, I cry out to you. I say, “You are my place of safety. You are everything I need in this life.”

He is everything we need in this life, and He is the only thing that can “make us better.”

Psalm 5:3
Lord, in the morning you hear my voice. In the morning I pray to you. I wait for you in hope.

Psalm 42:8
During the day the Lord sends his love to me. During the night I sing about him. I say a prayer to the God who gives me life.

Amanda shared some of her thoughts on prayer last week – what a beautiful way to pray for your kids!  It’s so important to teach kids to pray Scripture from the beginning, too – it can never be too early for them to learn that God’s Word never returns void!  Memorizing Scripture is a good way to get that started….

… and now it’s your turn… how do you incorporate prayer into your children’s lives?

Today we had a first.

We spent most of the morning on the couch in our pj’s. We read lots of books and made a craft. Then I had to look up some phone numbers up on the internet and make some phone calls. You stayed next to me and played with your craft box and read. In between phone calls you looked at me and said, “I want to change clothes.” I shrugged and said, “OK, when I’m done, we’ll change.”

A minute later you were quite agitated and said, “I want to change clothes!”  And then you blurted out, “I’m hiding something from you! I’m hiding something from you!” You said this with your hand covering a part of your pajama pants. I thought maybe you had gone to the bathroom or drawn on your pants. Then I saw a tiny hole.

“Lydia, did you cut a hole in your pants with your scissors?” I asked.

You just nodded with tears in your eyes.

The dots all connected for me and I tried to speak gently, “And you were trying to hide it from me? That’s why you laid on the floor to read? That’s why you asked me to change clothes?”

Another nod.

I caught you up in my lap and had you sit face to face with me. “Lydia do you know the 2 things you did wrong?” I asked softly. You nodded in the affirmative again. “You cut your pants. Which you know you’re not supposed to do. We only cut paper. Then you hid it from Mommy. You shouldn’t hide anything from Mommy. Do you know what that’s called?”

You just stared at me.

“It’s a lie. And lies make Jesus so sad. They make me sad.”

This whole time all I could see was your sweet contrite face. And all I was thinking was, “Should I discipline her? What do I do?!”

So, I finally said, “I’m not going to punish you. We’re going to pray and you can ask Jesus to forgive you…remember our F verse? ‘He forgives all our sins.’”

You were really crying now and did not want to voice a prayer to Jesus! So, I prayed for us instead. I thanked God that you had such a tender heart that even in the midst of sin, you chose to do right.

This whole time I was still frantically wondering, “Do I punish her?!” I finally decided that instead of changing clothes I was going to make you wear the pajamas until it was time for us to go out later tonight. You were horrified. You were crying and crying, pointing at the hole in your pants, “I don’t want to wear these!”

You were so sincere and so remorseful. I honestly tried not to smile because you were so beautiful. And I said, “This is what we’re going to do. Let’s take your pants off and we’ll throw them in the trashcan, ok? This is just what Jesus does. When we ask him to forgive us, he throws our sins away and never remembers them.”

It was a long walk to the trashcan and you held my hand tightly the whole time. We threw your pajamas away. Never to be seen again. Just like your sin.

Lydia, I know you won’t remember this day. But I hope you remember this: that Jesus loves you. He takes your sin from you when you ask. And he dresses you with new clothes. (Isaiah 61:10) He sees you as his perfect daughter.

Just as I do.

love,
Mommy