Thanks! Wow! Gimme! Oops! Don't Forget!

Talking with God and listening for God's response is the beginning of wisdom for all of us. Jesus prayed often, both alone and with his friends, and left us the perfect prayer, what we call "the Lord's Prayer" as a model for how we can pray.

The tradition of the Church categorizes prayer into different types. There are prayers of thanksgiving, prayers of adoration, prayers of petition, prayers of repentance and prayers of intercession. These are pretty big words, some of them loaded and it can be difficult enough to figure out how to pray them in our own lives, never mind teach them to our children. But if we get to the core of these different types of prayer, we can describe them as "Thanks!" "Wow!" "Gimme," "Ooops!" and "Don't Forget!" Sounds a little less formidable, doesn't it? And I'll bet you already pray many of these kinds of prayers. Here are my thoughts on teaching them and praying them with your children at home.

THANKS! is one of the easiest ways we talk to God. When something wonderful happens to us, it is time to remember that all good things are gifts from God and we need to take a breath and take the time to thank God for blessing us. Thanksgivings are an easy way to begin praying with your children. Grace before meals is an example of a thanksgiving prayer - and they are good models for other "thank you" prayers. The words aren't anywhere near as important as the feeling of gratitude we express.

WOW! is another easy and obvious way to pray with your children. When you see a beautiful sunset, hold a new brother or sister for the first time, or play in the first snow of the winter it is easy to be amazed by the world God has created so lovingly. Sometimes the feeling of awe we have is beyond words, but, again, the words aren't what is important. Simply to stand in the presence of God's work and acknowledge that it leaves you breathless is enough. Awe inspires wonder and children are wonderful at wondering. Invite them into the experience with you!

GIMME! These prayers require a bit more negotiation with your children to help them understand. It is always tempting to pray for things we want but don't need. We may want to hit the ball out of the park, but is that really the sort of thing we should ask God for? When your child wants to offer a prayer like this one, we need to gently guide them into the proper way of understanding what God wants for us. There is nothing wrong with asking God to help you use your abilities to their fullest or to be a graceful winner, but to ask to win games, get prizes or to be popular doesn't help us to learn to trust God and to rely on the good things God gives us. Gimme! is a normal desire of human nature, but it is one that needs to be tempered. The Lord's Prayer is a good model (granted, it's wordy!) for what a Gimme prayer might look like - what we ask for reveals our dependency on God and our desire to help make the world the way God wants it to be.

OOPS! Just as we teach our children to apologize to others, we need to teach them to apologize to God. One of the biggest reasons to talk to God is to learn how to be sorry for the things we do that hurt other people, hurt ourselves, hurt the world and hurt God. As we pray Oops prayers we begin to understand what we did wrong, our hearts soften and we learn not only how to ask for forgiveness from others, but we learn what it feels like to be forgiven. God ALWAYS forgives us and can help us to forgive ourselves and others. This one is a life long lesson for all of us and we are never to young to start!

DON'T FORGET! These are the prayers we offer for others - asking God to bless them, to heal them or to help them with some kind of difficulty in their lives. Again, this is an important lesson in being a grace-filled human being that can never be started too early in life. At bedtime we can invite our children to bless those they love by remembering them to God and asking God's blessing upon them. We can help our children pray for the playground bully or the friend who is too sick to come over and play. Life offers many opportunities to pray for others.

Prayer is a gift always available to us - wherever we are, whomever we are with, whatever the circumstance. It is never too early (or too late) to begin a practice of prayer. With Thanksgiving just over the horizon, now is a good time to begin counting our blessings. Make a list of your blessings as a family and start praying! I am sure that praying thanksgivings together will lead you into the other forms of prayer as well. Praying with our children is one of the greatest privileges of parenthood. To see into and share the joys, hurts and worries of our children's hearts is one of those experiences that always leads me to both THANKS! and WOW! prayers. I'll bet you will find it the same!

Faithfully,
Elizabeth