I still remember so vividly those days when we would hold their tiny hands to help them take their first steps; or how I used to take those little hands in mine, to show them how to properly hold the pencil; The days in which we invested hours to teach them how to ride a bike without training wheels or try a new pair of skates have passed by.

We have taught them how to read, to write, to be polite at the table, to speak different languages, to love books, to read their Bibles, to say “thank you” and “please”; to love and obey Mom and Dad; to live with open hands; to take a plane; to use wisely their time on their computer, to live happy, to set the table, to bake and cook; to drive and swim…

But, we almost forgot to teach them how to pray. 

We taught them, since they were little infants, that they should pray, we would lead them into prayer, and they would see that prayer was indeed part of our family. But we just realized we had never set apart a special time to teach them how to pray.

One disciple asked the Master, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” He knew that certain things do not “just” happen, they most be learned.  And someone needs to teach them.

A barber, in a cool spring in the 1530’s asked Martin Luther to teach him how to pray, he answered him writing a short treatise entitled “A Simple Way to Pray; for a Good Friend“

This is another reminder on how we fail as parents every day and yet God’s grace comes and lifts us up, and helps us to keep up with the race.

How are we teaching our children to pray?

At the family table.

We bring our Bibles, and read the Lord’s Prayer together every day; we make it ours and pray over it, we meditate on its words, we talk about its meaning, and then we pray.

Several books will be our companions this summer, and we have started with these:

I will post the new titles as soon as they arrive in the mail and we start studying them.

A Simple Way to Pray

Praying the Lord’s Prayer, by J.I Packer

When You  Pray: Making the Lord’s Prayer Your Own

A Method For Prayer: Freedom in the Face of God

A Diary of Private Prayer

A prayer guide that has been a great blessing to me, is the one Valerie put together a while ago. 





We took time in December to ponder and study the Incarnation, we waited during the Advent season, and then we celebrated the God-Man in the Manger  We did not want to miss the opportunity to study the Atonement, and we placed a cross where the Christmas tree was; we celebrated the risen Christ, and studied what this means; but, on how to pray, we almost forgot to teach them that.

We think we are teaching them, yet we are just learning.