Pre-K: A Prayer Framework

Our hope is that even the youngest children in our Pinnacle community begin to develop and engage in their own prayer practice with the Lord. There is no one way to pray. Prayer can take many forms, especially with children. One simple prayer framework that your child may follow when learning how to pray is to praise God, thank God, and to ask God.

Here is a sample with fill-in-the-blanks for you and your child to customize. 

Dear God, I love that you created ______. Thank you for ______. Lord, please help me _______. Amen. 

For a creative twist on the spoken prayer above, have your child make representations of what they talked about in their prayers using building or craft material such as playdough, watercolors, markers, or even legos.

K - 5th: Exploring Prayer through Movement & Fun

A way to help children feel comfortable praying is to incorporate prayer topics into their play time. A fun movement activity could be as simple as asking your child to show you what they look like when they pray. Once they do, take it a bit further and involve different volume levels or emotions in the movements. Ask them to show you what it might look like if they pray quietly, loudly, or when they feel happy, sad, or very angry. Let them be as animated in their movements and emotions as they would like. 

Another prayer idea is to play a game using a starting and a finishing line (it could be something simple like moving from one end of a hallway to another, or from the table to the couch. Children line up at the “starting line” and you decide on a topic such as, “what to pray for, who to pray for, when to pray, or where to pray.” Once they know the topic, the parent will choose a movement style (frog jumps, bunny hops, bear crawl, crab walk) and then the parent will call out options in the prayer category chosen. For example, If the category is “what to pray for,” the parent could say school, sports, or friendships. The child will decide which one they want to pray for and will then “hop like a bunny” to the finish line. The finish line then becomes the starting line, a new category and body movement is called, and the game repeats.

6th - 12th Grade: The Daily Replay Prayer

As a youth group, we have engaged in this prayer exercise a few times. I invite you to find a quiet place and pray. God promises to meet you there. 

1. Become aware of God’s presence. 
2. Review the day with gratitude. 
3. Pay attention to your emotions. 
4. Forgive, and ask for forgiveness. 
5. Look to tomorrow.