{"id":2483,"date":"2014-11-02T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-11-02T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.barbdahlgren.com\/?p=2483"},"modified":"2014-11-02T12:35:43","modified_gmt":"2014-11-02T18:35:43","slug":"a-young-childs-prayer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/?p=2483","title":{"rendered":"A Young Child’s Prayer"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A<\/a>\"Young<\/a>It\u2019s never too early to teach our children about a loving God and prayer. Children can be taught that prayer is a little talk with God. God wants us to know him. He is interested is how we feel. We can tell him anything.<\/p>\n

Children can learn that there are many different kinds of prayers. Here are a few\u2026<\/p>\n

Praise Prayers:<\/strong> Praise is something nice we say about someone. So we can tell God that we think he is nice. We can say, \u201cGod, I love you. I love how you made the sky, birds, flowers and trees. \u201c<\/p>\n

I\u2019m Sorry Prayers:<\/strong> These prayers let God know when we\u2019ve messed up. So we can say, \u201cI\u2019m sorry I lied. I\u2019m sorry I got in a fight with my sister. Please help me not to do those things.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Children<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Grace Prayers:<\/strong> This is when we thank God for our food.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Asking Prayers:<\/strong> This is when we need God\u2019s help with something. God is not like Santa Clause. We don\u2019t give him a list of everything we want because we\u2019ve been good. We can also ask for things other people need. We can say, \u201cLord, please help me be a nicer person. Please help my sick Nana. Please let my daddy get a job.\u201d We can ask God anything. God answers our prayers. God is like a loving parent so sometimes his answer is yes, sometimes no, sometimes maybe, and sometimes it\u2019s wait awhile.<\/p>\n

Good Night Lord Prayers:<\/strong> A little prayer we stay before we go to bed.<\/p>\n

Although we want our children to learn to talk to God from the heart, there is nothing wrong with memorizing a few little prayers to get them started. Grace prayers and good night prayers are a good place to start.<\/p>\n

Thank Prayers:<\/strong> This is when we let God know we are thankful for all he does for us. We can keep a list of all the things we are thankful for and tell God. Some ideas about what to be thankful for would be: our parents, a sunny day, our grandparents, our friends, our brothers and sisters, and so on.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a popular grace prayer\u2026<\/p>\n

\"Grace<\/a>God is great
\nGod is good
\nLet us thank Him
\nFor our food
\nBy His hands
\nWe are fed
\nThank you God
\nFor daily bread<\/p>\n

It always irritated me that \u201cgood\u201d and \u201cfood\u201d didn\u2019t rhyme, but I\u2019m a little OCD. It gets the message across and is far better than\u2026<\/p>\n

Look out mouth
\nLook out gums
\nLook out stomach
\nHere it comes<\/p>\n

Many start with this little good night prayer, which I think is horrendous\u2026<\/p>\n

Now I lay me down to sleep,
\nI pray the Lord my soul to keep,
\nIf I shall die before I wake,
\nI pray the Lord my soul to take. Amen.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s nothing quite like thinking about death to get a good night\u2019s sleep \u2013 especially for a child! \uf04a<\/p>\n

\"Nighttime<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I highly recommend a modified version like one of the following.<\/p>\n

Now I lay me down to sleep,
\nI pray the Lord my soul to keep
\nMay angels watch me through the night,
\nAnd keep me safe till morning’s light.<\/p>\n

Or\u2026<\/p>\n

Thank you Lord for another day,
\nThe chance to learn, the chance to play.
\nNow as I lay me down to sleep,
\nI pray the Lord my soul to keep.<\/p>\n

Or make one up\u2026 Or we could have our children make one up. They are very clever! And we are never too young to start praying.<\/p>\n

\"Children<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s never too early to teach our children about a loving God and prayer. Children can be taught that prayer is a little talk with God. God wants us to know him. He is interested is how we feel. We … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2483"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2483\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}