Say Your Prayers!

How often do you say your prayers? Is there a correct way to pray? I know as a teenager I made it a habit to say my prayers when I knew I was in trouble! Praying on a normal basis was not something that I was taught to do as a child. As an adult I know that I am still getting use to the idea that it is okay to have a one-on-one conversation with God. Our lesson this past Wednesday was focused on teaching our teens about how to pray and what the Bible says about praying. I know that both my husband and I hoped and prayed that this message would impact our teens as much as it did us as we worked together on every aspect of it.

Our youth group meetings usually starts off with Praise and Prayer. Each of our teens are given a chance to tell us about any praises they may have and prayers that they need. Our group has learned to be very comfortable with one another and are not afraid to share their personal situations. I find that quite reassuring and I also felt that it was a positive springboard to studying what praying is all about and how powerful it is to pray. I was extremely happy to see that the majority of our kids raised their hand when we asked them if they prayed every night before bed. We decided to open our lesson with the idea of understanding what praying really is .....a private conversation with our Lord and Savior. Knowing that we are having such an important conversation with Jesus, you would think that it is a known understanding that complete respect and humbleness is a must during this precious time. At least as an adult I understand this, but as a teenager; well this idea is not quite a reality just yet. Most likely it is because they are not understanding the impact of being disrespectful to such a high power and the fear of the Lord has not yet developed within them. Proverbs 1:1 states that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

Do our teens fear the Lord? I have no idea! I know they fear getting in deep trouble and they fear upsetting their parents because of the punishment that typically follows. But do they relate any of that fear to our Heavenly Father?

Our lesson included 8 praying stations that had different ideas for our kids to learn how to pray for others in need of prayers. Praying is such a powerful tool and this lesson was equipping our kids with the knowledge to open their hearts and minds to the dynamics of praying for others. Some of our stations had them think about people that are living in poverty, people that are homeless, and people that are incarcerated. I was thoroughly impressed to see some of kids genuinely taking the time to pray for individuals that were in some sort of troubled situation. After each station was visited by our teens, we decided to close youth group with prayer. I was blessed to see the seriousness of our kids during this time of talking to Jesus. There was no giggling or acting up; which has been a norm for us each week. We had silence and we also had a couple of them speak up and say their prayers out loud. Thank you Jesus!

Our challenge for our kids this week was to continue to pray and open up their thoughts to Jesus.

Although we wonder if our lesson had any impact on our kids, I know that Jesus knows his kids hearts! I also know that Jesus was in mine and my husbands hearts when we were teaching our lesson from the Bible!