7 Ways To Train Up Prayer Warrior Kids - Part 2

Last week, I started the discussion of prayer and our kids. If you missed it, please check that one out first for the top 3 of my list!  I asked for feedback and I can't wait to hear how it went!  Let me know - trust me, I am listening (well reading, but you get the point). 

 
Here is the rest of the list:


4. Home Anointing - My home isn’t just the place I come to every night, its the place where I want to serve people and offer solace.  My home is part of my ministry.  I believe praying over every room and anointing the doors of every room gives my home to God and reminds me of the purposes of my life on earth.  Heck, when I get a new car, one of the first things I do, is anoint it. 

I am not here just to build a fortune and die, but instead to share the love of Jesus with the world.  Teaching my kids to anoint our home, can help them see the bigger picture spiritually. 
 

5. Praying For Each Other - My kids see me pray.  I pray for them and on the flip side of that I invite them to pray for me.  I want them to know that I need their prayers as much as they need mine.  It adds to the "us" of family, which I think is important.  Team dynamics will be a key for them well beyond the 18 years they spend in our home.  

6. Spirit Led Prayers - We aren’t practiced in the art of being quiet and still.  We live in an ever moving society, yet being in tune with God, with ourselves and with each other requires breaks from the noise. 

 

Being able to hear the Spirit of God quietly speak to your heart allows you to pray for things that you have no knowledge of and connect again with the body of Christ. 

 

Another aspect of this is praying for people as they come to mind.  This is another great place to utilize "prayer knots" - give your kids a string to take on their day and find out who came to mind.  We never know what people face but God does, so allowing Him to lead in this discipline is an amazing gift!  

7. Be a Prayer Gifter - Sometimes the best gift you can offer someone is prayer.  It lets them know you care and takes the time to engage in the deep places in their lives. 

 

I don’t like to settle for superficial in my relationships and the best way to care for the heart of someone is to pray.  I want to teach my kids to ask first, but I can’t tell you how many times, as someone has poured out their life to me the impact that was made just by asking, “Can I pray for you?" Give the gift that doesn't make the list, but is always needed and appreciated!

 

So what did you think? 

Which of these is your favorite? 

Do you have things to add?

I would love to hear from you. 

Comment below or find me on one of my social media pages.  This only works if we do it.  Don't have kids? Don't worry, invest in your own prayer life and see who God has plopped in your path that you could teach these things too.  So many of my kids are the teens and children that I have around me in life.  They don't have to call me mom, to produce a positive impact!  Go out there and be a part of the solution!!!

7 Ways To Train Up Prayer Warrior Kids- Part 1

This isn’t my first post about who I want my kids to be when they reach adulthood.  Their faith, character and integrity are definitely integral parts of what I am aiming at in my parenting strategies.  I definitely get a lot wrong because parenting is such a challenge and I am learning as I go, but seeing the end in mind in the middle of the moment is definitely key at making the parenting years count. 

One of the best tools my mom gave me as a young girl was the gift of prayer.  Prayer helps me lean into God when I don’t have enough on my own.  Prayer gets a bad wrap these days because so many say the word without actually doing the job of praying, but true prayer is powerful and life changing!

If you are like me, you want your kids to be people of prayer. 
 

I have come up with seven ways you can help kids become people of prayer.  My list was long so you will get it half today and half(ish) next week. 

Here are the first three:

 

1. Prayer Walks - Walks aren’t just for exercise, engaging your mind in knowing your surroundings and engaging your spirit to connect with God in the places you walk is making the most of that experience.  Last week I took my youth group on a prayer walk of our downtown.  Each stop represented areas we wanted to pray for in our city.  The teens responded really well. 

We also used "prayer knots" which gave them something to do on the walk.  As God brought things to mind, I asked the teens to pray and make a knot for that prayer.  We discussed what their knots were afterwards.  

Prayer walks can be connecting locations with topics of prayer or praying for each of your neighbors as you walk past their house.  Teaching your kids to be intentional in this discipline is an amazing skill.  

2. Environmental Prayers - I can recall two years ago, my son and I were in the car headed to preschool.  He called out to me that we needed to pray.  I asked why and he told me he saw a flyer for a missing cat and that cat and family needed us to pray. 

 

It completely blessed me to hear him note that and bring it to my attention.  I had never told him to pray for missing animals.  I had taught him to stop and pray whenever we heard or saw an emergency vehicle. 

 

Being aware of your surroundings is a good skill for safety but it is also a spiritual tool too.  Now when my kids see a homeless person we can offer them a grace bag of nonperishable food but also take a moment to pray.  When we hear a siren or pull over to let one pass, we pray. Thanks to Caleb, when we see lost pets, we pray.  There are so many other reminders of prayer all around us, we just have to pay attention.  What other ideas can you add to my list? 

3.Insomnia Intercession - I don’t struggle with insomnia, but when I do wake in the middle of the night, its my signal to pray.  You never know what people are going through around the world, or if someone is calling out to God and you are the one he woke to intercede (purposed intentional prayer) for them, you are blessed!  We are after all, the body of Christ - all equals and all interconnected.  Sure you can count sheep, or even count blessings like Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney in "White Christmas," but I prefer to pray.  Teaching my kids to do the same is a legacy I want to leave for the future.  

Do me a favor - try these out this week.  Comment below on how they worked and come back next week for the rest of the list. 

Training our kids to be spiritual powerhouses is the best gift we can give them.  Prayer works so well because its not just asking for the request asked in Sunday School, but it engages in spiritual things that we may have no knowledge about.  That right there is amazing!!!

Prayer Not Pinterest

This year I began writing in a notebook solely for prayer time. It has amazed me how some intentionality and quiet time has increased what I hear from God through the Bible and prayer. 

 About a month ago, I read a chapter in Arlene Pellicane's book, "31 Days to Becoming a Happy Mom," that discussed how we should go to God, not Google when trials first arise and it convicted me. I often run to my search engine to discover an ailment or parenting strategy before going to my Heavenly Father. I have made an effort to correct this by asking God my question first and quietly wait for a reply. Since that change I have been amazed by the answers I have heard from our Lord. 

One morning I was praying for a way to discipline common issues we face in our home. I wanted a solution I could also participate in when I made a mistake so I could model my mess-ups and corrections as well. God gave me an idea! 

This idea would have been something I could only have dreamed to have populated my Pinterest feed. What provision! I quickly got to work. 

I highlighted five issues we often encounter: 

Treatment of Others, 

Our Words, 

Need for Gratitude (When you have an attitude, you need gratitude), 

Fear and 

Anger. 

 I used popsicle sticks and divided them with food coloring (1/4 c rubbing alcohol 40 drops food coloring) solution into said categories. Once the sticks had soaked and dried, I then wrote the category on one side and a scripture reference on the other. 

Treatment of Others - Undyed 

Our Words - Blue 

Need for Gratitude - Green 

Anger - Red 

Fear - Purple 

Once all of them were completed I added them to a jar and positioned it on the kitchen table. 

We have since added a Bible to the counter, because some days we are looking up a lot of passages. My prayer is that our family will learn scripture as we discipline our lives in these key problem areas. I know if I continue to pray, this can be a fruitful exercise. 

Afterall, Isaiah 55:11 tells us, "so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it." 

Here are just a few more verses on the power of the word of God. 

Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 

2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. 

Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

Joshua 1:8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. 

Psalm 119:105 Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. 

Psalm 119:11 I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.