Today, we learned about prayer and Jesus teaching his disciples how to pray. I love talking about prayer with young children. You never know what they're going to say and it really gives you an incite to what is in their minds when they start thanking God for random things.
We learned that you can pray anywhere and that you don't have to get on your knees to pray. You can talk to God anywhere and any time! I mentioned that you can pray at church, in the car, outside riding a bike. I was quickly told that you shouldn't close your eyes to pray if you're riding your bike because you might crash and get bad scrapes on your knees. I agreed that yes, it was ok to keep your eyes open in that circumstance.
We talked about praying before we eat our food, always thanking God for what we have to eat. "A" told me that sometimes she is just too hungry and gobbles up her food so she doesn't take the time to pray.
I think most kids are taught to say a bedtime prayer, at least I hope they're being taught that at home. I talked about praying when we're happy, sad, scared or just thankful for something good that has happened. I know that when I end my day with prayer that I'm really comforted by the thought that I've told God whatever was in my mind and on my heart and know that He really does hear me.
We made a handprint craft (I'm crazy about handprint crafts!) where I listed anything they wanted to pray about. "P" quickly spouted off 10 of her family members! She was saying them as fast as I could write. I thought it was sweet that she wanted to list herself and I told her that yes, we pray for ourselves to be good and obey our parents.
"A" really elaborated about specifics that she wanted to pray about. She wants ALL the sick people in the world to be well. She is thankful for all of her toys and to quote her, "I have a whole lot of them." She wanted to pray for the "whole wide world that God made". Along with family members, she said, "I want to pray for you!" Melt. My. Heart. She said it without any prompting from me which made it even more special! What really got me was what she said about Nan, her great-grandmother. Nan is the one that brings her to church so she is a pretty special person. Here is what she said about Nan: "I'm going to pray that Nan will be young again and not be so old." PRICELESS! I could hardly wait to show Nan what she made and tell her the story. Nan LOVED it, as I knew she would!
Another tidbit of information that "A" randomly told me was this: "If you say bad words, God will take away your voice." Alrighty then! A while back she told me, "If you say bad words, your tongue will fall out." So, funny!
"..ask and it shall be given unto you..." Luke 11:9
