Family Guide: Prayer
At Bridgetown, our goal is that every person – adult and child – would be with Jesus, become like Jesus, and do what Jesus did. But these things don’t just happen overnight; they take time, intention, and repetition. So, with this in mind, we will be releasing a Family Guide during each teaching series to help you engage a particular Practice from the life and teaching of Jesus together. Since these Guides are aimed at kids of multiple ages, please skip or adapt anything that does not feel age appropriate. These Guides are written conversationally, so feel free to read through them. Italicized words are notes to parents and bolded words are questions to take some time with.
When is a time when you’ve made a brand new friend? Maybe recently you met someone new at school, or at the playground?
(Give space for answers.)
When you first became friends, what did you do to get to know that person?
(Give space for answers.)
If you want to learn about somebody, you have to spend time talking to them! Wouldn’t it be weird if you had a new friend you never spoke to? You just sat in the same room and stared at one another? I imagine you wouldn’t learn much about that person, and they wouldn’t learn much about you. They wouldn’t know what you like or what you’re interested in, and you couldn’t share any plans or excitement with one another.
Getting to know God as our friend is the same. To get to know God, we need to spend time talking with him. Talking with God is called Prayer.
You might be wondering, why do we talk to God though? He already knows everything about me! That’s a great question — we pray, because God is someone we want to get to know, too. To understand him better, to share ideas and feelings with one another, you can talk to him.
God also gave us his Holy Spirit so we could talk to him any time, and so he could talk to us in all kinds of ways too. What are some ways God talks to us?
(Parents: give space for answers)
God talks to us through the Bible, through his Holy Spirit in our minds and hearts, and sometimes through other people, too!
You know who we can look to as an example for how to talk with God? Jesus! And Jesus talked to his Father God all the time! He told God how he felt, what he needed, and what he was thinking.
We can talk to God about anything and everything too — how we are feeling, things we need his help with, what we’re thinking, what we are worried about, to say thank you, and share things we want. Some people pray out loud, and some people like to pray without saying anything out loud at all! What are some times that we pray together?
(Parents: give space to share answers, and perhaps offer examples if needed such as “when we need help,” or “to give thanks for a meal.”)
Do you ever pray by yourself? What are some things you pray about?
If not — that’s okay! We all start somewhere. Prayer can feel a little mysterious or intimidating at first. You might wonder what to say. That is okay — even Jesus’s disciples asked him to teach them how to pray.
Let’s open our bibles together and read Matthew 6v9–13, where Jesus taught his disciples all about how to pray.
“This, then, is how you should pray:
“‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.
Another way to pray this you might have heard at Bridgetown Kids goes like this:
God, we love you
We want to see your kingdom everywhere
Give us what we need today
Help us forgive, because you forgive us
Help us follow you
We will worship you forever
Amen
In this prayer, we tell God we know he is Holy and honor him. We ask him for help with what we need, and also help doing the things we should. You can pray any time and place — while you brush your teeth, while you walk to school, when you’re alone or when you’re with family or friends.
At Bridgetown, we follow a daily prayer rhythm or pattern. In the morning, we pray the Lord’s prayer that we just learned. At lunchtime, we pray for people we know who aren’t friends with Jesus yet. And at night, we pray to say thank you to God. It’s so cool knowing that when we pray, there are hundreds of people around the city praying the same things we are!
Prayer is the place where we can get to know God, and we can share more of ourselves with God too. Let’s pick a time and a way we want to try prayer together!
Idea 1: Pray the Lord’s Prayer
Pray the Lord’s Prayer together to begin our day. Remember the Lord’s prayer from our story earlier? Something cool to remember is that all over the city, friends and family from Bridgetown are praying the Lord’s prayer too!
When in our morning could we start praying the Lord’s Prayer together? Maybe in the car on the way to school, at breakfast, or before getting out of bed. When can we start?
Idea 2: Make a prayer tree
A fun tool to engage our creative gifts—like coloring, cutting, writing, and pasting—in prayer is to make a prayer tree! For lots of us, praying with our hands, eyes, and big ideas helps us to remember our prayers and get excited about talking to God often!
We can make a prayer tree by cutting a tree with branches out of cardboard, painting on a big sheet of paper, or bringing a real branch in from outside! We can make “leaves” by cutting them out of paper. On each of the leaves, draw or write a thing or person you are praying for. Each week, we can pray over those leaves together. When the prayer is answered, we can hang it up on the tree! Whenever we see those leaves we can remember God listens to us and answers prayers!
Note: for more detailed information and ideas about the prayer tree, check out Teach Your Children Well by Sarah Cowan Johnson. The Prayer Tree exercise is on page 118.
Which of these two options do we want to commit to?
Parents: Circle or write down the option your family has selected.
Whether we make a prayer tree, pray the Lord’s prayer or something else, let’s find time together to talk with God and listen for his voice.