pray like this to learn how to pray

Pray Like This

Prayer is tricky. Wait no, it’s not tricky. It can be hard to explain. We often over-spiritualize prayer or we turn it into a formula. I’ve certainly been guilty of both of these extremes. It can be difficult to teach children how to pray. Pray Like This walks kids through how to pray and is a great addition to a Sunday School library.

Pray with Pray Like This

(Liz over at Steadfast Family gave me a free copy of this, and it is chock full of affiliate links)

What is Pray Like This?

teach kids how to pray with pray like this (1)

Pray like this takes the example Jesus gave us in the Lord’s prayer and break it down into it’s separate statements and uses each of these as a jumping-off point for a different prayer.

Simple right?

It is, but what I particularly love about this is how she expands on this.

Pray Like This broken down

First, it’s highly interactive. Almost every single page has something for your child to do. It’s also encouraging them to not worry about doing it perfectly.

“Our Father in Heaven hallowed be your name.”

Through the course of this book you will work through this phrase 8 times. Each time you will look at a different way you can pray this and a different way to interact with the prayer.

learn to pray with pray like this hallowed be your name
I’ve opted to not include a finished version, because some of these could be too personal to share.

Her very first prompt is a fun prompt, and it’s one of the prayers I frequently pray. As a side note, this is something I pray when I’m having trouble with insomnia.

“Your kingdom come, your will be done.”

You work through what it looks like to agree with God and ask God for His kingdom to come. This is a hard topic to make relevant to little kids. Each time you work through the Lord’s prayer you focus on a different way to make it relevant to kids.

teach kids how to pray with pray like this

I love this particular prompt of imagining what it will be like when Jesus comes back.

“Give us this day our daily bread.”

What do you need today?

Liz works through what this request looks like from so many different angles.

Sometimes you are acknowledging what you really want, sometimes you ask for something, and sometimes you are thanking God for what He has given you.

learn how to pray give us our daily bread

My favorite is drawing a picture of something you are worried about and then draw a balloon around it, and imagine it flying up to God.

“And forgive us our debts.”

It can be very easy to blow past this part of the prayer, and Liz did a great job of exploring different angles without dwelling on how terrible you are.

teach how to pray forgive our debts

Each time she comes up with another way to express how Jesus freed us from sin. I loved the idea in one of her prompts of drawing how God has made you more like Him, so it’s not just focusing on your sins.

“As we have also forgiven our debtors.”

The is hard. It is hard to forgive people who have hurt us.

I love the idea of drawing out forgiving someone seven times and then drawing it seventy times seven. It illustrates how hard that is. Humph, I don’t have a good picture of this one.

“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.”

We all have temptations. Sometimes it can be hard to escape them and sometimes we need good examples to keep us going.

learn to pray lead not into temptation

The example for this phrase I’m going to pull out is drawing a picture of the people who pull you towards God and show wisdom.

Where can you find Pray Like This?

Pray Like This can be found at Amazon (print copy) or over at the Steadfast Familly store (digital version to print).

Find More about Prayer

pray like this to learn how to pray

Comments

One response to “Pray Like This”

  1. You know, this is the only prayer I learned in my native Russian (I was raised without religion) and I also say it when I cannot sleep 🙂

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