Making a Prayer Box

This post first appeared on another of my blogs in 2012, I'm reposting as we remade our prayer box this week, it had got a bit tatty and some of the prayers out of date and so we gave it an overhaul...

 

So some time ago I made myself a prayer box, there were so many people, so many situations to pray for, I just couldn't do them all every day! So I got a nice box and put in things and people I wanted to pray for on slips of paper. Now each day, I take 3 a day out of the box and pray for them.

At bedtime each day I pray with my kids and they often go blank about what to pray for and they wanted to use my prayer box, which was nice but a bit difficult as some of the situations and people were just too difficult to explain! then they wanted to put things into my box, and then they wanted to make their own, which was probably the best idea! So  we sat down and they made their own prayer box...

 

I love that this was something they wanted to do and I think it will continue to be a great way for them to think and pray about situations and people around them. I want them to be compassionate but also to recognise both the importance of and the effectiveness of prayer. It’s funny how so often we think that kids aren’t able to handle difficult situations, and I am regularly surprised by how much they can! They might not be so tactful as adults, but sometimes that’s good – they often ask the questions that we want to but can’t or find difficult. This week we have prayed for friends with marriage problems and a recent bereavement, and they have done so with such love and compassion, I have been really moved. Of course we have also had prayers to get picked for the cricket squad too… (and that prayer was answered ;) 

  

Updating the prayer box

What is Prayer?

We have been discovering what prayer is.

 

If you do pray, have you ever thought what its like, and have you ever thought what prayer actually is?

Well if you haven't thought about that, you're in luck! Because we have!

 

What do we think about prayer?

• we use the things God created (our ears and mouth)
• asking (politely) for things
• talking to God
• communicating with God
• saying sorry 
• saying thank you 

What does the bible say about prayer?

• John 15:7 - Abide in me
• Mark 11:24 - Praying in Faith
• Luke 11:9 - Ask, Seek, Knock
• 1 Timothy 2:1-5 - Intercession
• Matthew 6:5-14 - The Lord's Prayer

 
(by Bluebell)
  

By Red:

 

For this activity I wanted to focus on bible study. We pray often with our kids but it's good to remind them and ourselves why we pray. So this was a session spent largely in our bibles, but to maintain their interest we used ipads too! So we started by looking at the question:

What do you think prayer is?

we wrote down on pieces of paper what we thought prayer was. Then we looked at:

What does the bible say about prayer?

Using ipads and bibles we searched for scriptures on prayer. (We happen to have ipads but you can do this on anything that can access google or (I recommend) biblegateway.com)

I allowed 5-10 miniutes for this and then we share some of the scriptures they highlighted (some of them Blue has posted above)


We then looked at:

What can we pray about?

and again wrote down our answers.

Finally the kids chose one scripture that had particularly spoken to them and made a sign to stick up in their rooms. We did this with paper and pens but if your kids are particularly adept on an ipad etc you can do this digitally!
It's great to have scripture around our house to remind us of God's promises to us. Plus for them particularly it is a reminder of something they have discovered for themselves, it means so much more to them then.


What I loved about this time was that it really helped my kids to see the bible as real, as something that they can use every day. Especially in this digital age when you can access the whole of the bible at the click of a button, what a great tool to have at our finger tips. Plus using google it was a bit like a treasure hunt and they loved that, with comments like 'oh I've got one', 'found another one', 'this ones good!' etc Also it engaged them on their level but enabled me to share some deeper things with them about prayer and faith.

So often when we spend time together  in prayer or looking at the bible, conversations just open up really naturally, it's giving them the time to think about stuff that often we don't, even as adults, which is really valuable. This time one of them drew a picture of 'God's Kingdom' and explained exactly what it was and the light of God, the glory shining out of it.  This was a real encourgament for her when I explained what the bible says about the Kingdom of God and how we can shine God's glory to those around us.

Prayer candles

We have been doing prayer candles!

If you would like to do some prayer candles you might need:

• a lit fire,
• a load of candles
• paper and pens

So what are prayer candles?

well prayer candles are candles (as you might of guessed!)

how do you do this activity?

well its simple! All you have to do is sit quietly and ask god to give you a person to pray for. Then you write it on a piece of paper, scrunch it up, (for this part you will need a lit fire) and then throw it in the fire and watch it burn, so that you can reflect on what they need praying for. 

(for this part you will need a load of candles!)

Then light a candle to show the light of the world (god) cares.

Some things that you need to do prayer candles with

• patience
• peace
• a quiet space

you might want to do prayer candles with some quiet worship.

by Bluebell