Tools/Resources to Help Cultivate a Prayer Life in Your Kids:
Advocating for your kids in daily prayer is one of the most important things you can do as a parent. We do not fight against flesh and blood according to Ephesians 6:10-18. A parent’s most powerful weapon against the enemy is their prayers over their kids. I have seen in my own personal family many times how prayer has changed things in my kids. Another important aspect of intercession and parenting is teaching our kids about prayer and how to pray. I desire to have my kids have their own personal, deep relationship with Jesus and not just follow Jesus because that’s what Mom and Dad do. One of the ways to help them start developing a deeper relationship with Christ is to cultivate a life of prayer in them. Even when they are young, every time you pray as a family or thank Jesus for your food, it is helping to develop and demonstrate a life a prayer in your kids. I love finding resources that help me with this part of discipling my kids. Here are a few of my favorites….
- Akebu to Zapotec by June Hathersmith
Akebu to Zapotec is one of my favorite books to develop intercession for the little ones. It goes from A-Z and covers 26 countries that do not have a Bible in their own language. We pick a letter once a week with my 7 year old and learn about the village and what country these unreached people are from. My 7 year old son loves this book and is anxious to get it out of the bookshelf so we can pray and learn about another village. I think one of the best things about this book is the author’s testimony at the beginning. Akebu to Zapotec is the second book that she has written on unreached people because kids prayed with the first book and every village in those countries received the Bible in their own language. Its a book that is written with younger children in mind but because we use it as a tool to teach the kids intercession, the older children still enjoy the book. You could take any of the countries and have the older kids do a deeper study of them.
2. Window on the World by Daphne Spraggett and Jill Johnstone
This book is another A-Z book that covers many more countries in the world that need prayer. The book has beautiful photographs of the different people groups and countries that kids can pray for. It is from the same organization that has given us Operation World for the adults. Unlike the adult one, this one is more attractive to kids because of the numerous pictures. Each two page spread has different facts and a map of the country. They also put down the specific prayer requests for each country. This has been one of our families favorites because it gives kids a peek into what each of the countries must be like. We have used this daily in our “Bible” time to pray for one country each day. Discussions about different religions and belief systems have naturally happened when using this book. I love how this book helps my kids get a world perspective and realize how much bigger the world is around them. The simple verse of John 3:16 that we all know so well becomes more impactful to kids when they learn about other countries. “For God so loved the world….”
3. 100 Gateway Cities of the 10/40 Window by C. Peter Wagner
This is the current book we are working through as a family as part of our “Bible” time. The 10/40 Window represents a rectangular area of North Africa, the Middle East and Asia that is located 10 degrees north and 40 degrees north latitude. These countries are some of the most unreached people in the world. The majority of followers of Islam, Hindu, Buddism and Non-religious live in the 10/40 window. There are about 4.63 billion people, represented in 8,065 specific people groups in the 10/40 Window. 5,495 of those people groups are considered unreached which amounts to about 2.97 billion people. Each page of the book represents a different city that is unreached and shares statistics of those countries. I also love the prayer requests at the bottom of the page for each city. You can also use this opportunity for a geography lesson. We take a globe or a world map and point out where the city is and what country it is in. This helps the kids have a reference on where the country is that they are praying for.
4. Voice of Martyrs (Kids of Courage)
Voice of Martyrs is a free magazine that talks about the persecuted church around the world. They change the names of different people who are being persecuted and share their stories in this magazine. They write a kid version called Kids of Courage that talks about kids that are standing up for their faith. The adult version is sent to homes for free when you sign up for the magazine on their site. The Kids of Courage magazine for kids can be sent to your home for a small fee but is free online on their website. Kids of Courage is a great way to bring kids an awareness of what its like for other children in the world to live out their faith. It also give them a chance to pray for these kids or families that are currently experiencing persecution.
5. http://www.prayercast.com
I recently found out about this site and I loved it. This site is prayers said over almost every country in the world. For example, we went on the site the other day because we were studying the country of Nigeria. We went to www.prayercast.com and clicked on “Nations” at the top of the site. Then we clicked on “Nigeria” and were directed to a page with a video to play. When you play the video, a native of Nigeria is praying over the country while displaying pictures of the people and the culture. I was so moved by hearing the prayers declared over Nigeria. This also gave my kids a small picture of what it might be like in that country. Amazing site to use for intercession for the nations with your kids.
Our lives can help reflect and encourage a life of prayer. One of the things in our family that we have done since the kids were little is when we see an ambulance go by, we pray for the people that they are going to help. Another way our family has walked with our kids in prayer is through family crisis. Family crisis are not something you ever want to go through in life, but they are an opportunity to have the entire family turn to God in prayer.
We had a family crisis a couple of years ago with our daughter. She had MRSA inside her bones, muscle and and blood. MRSA is known to be on the skin quite commonly and not a fun thing to deal with, but inside the body, it’s a totally different animal. Our daughter quite quickly ended up being in a life and death situation. Our family and many other believers came together in prayer and within 5 days she was healed. She had to remain in the hospital for about 2 weeks, but the doctors were surprised how quickly she recovered. It was a hard time for us as a family, but our kids saw how powerful prayer can be. We have had other situations where we needed a financial miracle and have prayed as a family. God has provided in unique ways which helped our kids faith grow. Including the kids in some of our needs as a family is another way to live a life a of prayer.
These are just some of the tools we have used in our family to help develop a lifestyle of prayer. God placed you as amazing parents over your children. He will give you the strategy in how to teach and guide your children in a life of prayer. Enjoy the journey!
Living the Adventure 