Do you have the pitter patter of little feet in your life? Children? Grandchildren? Nieces and nephews?
What a joy! And what a responsibility.
When you have the opportunity to tuck them into bed at night, do you say prayers with them? There’s nothing quite so pure and beautiful as hearing a little child pray.
As Jesus said: “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” (Mark 10:14)
A wonderful way to teach a child about praying for others is by making a photo prayer journal with them.
When my daughter was 5, we did just that. The journal was kept under her pillow and pulled out every night at prayer time. She would decide which people in the journal would be included in her prayers that evening and she would turn to their picture as she prayed for them.
Creating a photo prayer journal with your child makes a great summer craft project.
Here’s all you need to get started:
- A large measure of patience. (By letting the child do the work, it will mean much more to them. But it might take a while!)
- Supplies: journal (we used a small spiral journal from The Container Store), photographs of loved ones, markers, scissors, glue stick, stickers.
- Let your child glue the pictures into the journal. Adding a few stickers can add to the fun.
- Then, let them write the names of the people in the pictures. (As you can see from the picture of my daughter’s journal, her letters at 5 weren’t quite “perfect.” To me, that’s part of the beauty of this little book.)
A child is never too young to learn the importance of prayer. And praying for others, especially those outside of immediate family (i.e. a Compassion child, someone who has lost a parent or grandparent, a friend who is moving and needs new friends) reinforces the importance of caring about others and asking for God’s blessing in their lives.
And even if you don’t have small children in your life, consider making a photo prayer journal for yourself! It will be like a fresh breeze for your prayer life.