Oftentimes our prayers reflect more of a gimme, gimme, gimme attitude. Lord, gimme strength. Lord, gimme peace. Lord, gimme joy. Lord, gimme patience. Or they reflect some red flag we’ve thrown up. Lord, I need help. Lord, I can’t do this on my own. Lord, if this child doesn’t stop whining I’m going to bust a blood vessel.
Is that how we want our child coming to us all the time? Mommy, sissy won’t play with me. Daddy, I can’t tie my shoe. Mom, can I go to the dance? Dad, can I have the car? If all we ever got from our children were requests for our interceding, wouldn’t we feel a bit used after awhile?
While it’s our great pleasure to be able to help our child, there is nothing like receiving a genuine, unsolicited “thank you” or “I love you” from him. Those are very precious moments that our child may not remember, but we store up for eternity. I don’t want to presuppose God, but I can’t imagine Him thinking differently.
Spend deliberate time helping your child to find things to be thankful to God for. You may be surprised to discover this is difficult for your child to do. Children are very concrete thinkers well into their teens and tend not to see beyond their immediate environment. Once they’ve listed the trees, the sky and the dog, they may be hard pressed to come up with anything else.
Open their eyes and their hearts to the world around them and in all the ways God has provided for them. Don’t forget to tell them to be thankful for their parents and any siblings they have, too. Teaching them to be thankful and praising in their prayers will help them know that their Lord is worthy and draw them away from treating Him like a genie who grants wishes.
Related Articles:
What Do We Teach Our Children To Pray For? Part 1
What Do We Teach Our Children To Pray For? Part 3
Thursday, April 3, 2008
What Do We Teach Our Children To Pray For? Part 2 of 3
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