Prayer for Kindergarteners

In my quest to make things understandable for the HotSpot kids I teach (PreK through Kindergarten) I tackled the subject of prayer last week. It was a challenge to explain that prayer is more than getting things (even things for other people) and more of a way for us to be more like Christ. Here is what I came up with:

  • How do we talk to God? Prayer...prayer is talking to God
  • Isn't it great that God wants us to talk to Him? He loves you and me wants to hear from us all the time
  • He wants us to talk to him about good things that have happened to us and bad things that have happened to us
  • He even wants us to ask Him for things...anything...
  • He loves to give us things and He has a goal for you and me – He wants to make you and me to be just like Jesus
  • And that means when we pray to God and ask Him for something, well, He could give us one of three answers
  • · Let's pretend you ask your dad if you could play with a knife...what do you think they would say? Why?
  • Sometimes we ask God for things that He knows would be bad for us – and He says no and it is no forever. He doesn't want us to get hurt.
  • Let's pretend it is your birthday and your mom brought home a great looking birthday cake for the big party later with all your friends. But it looks so good you want a piece right now...what do you think that your mom will say? Why?
  • Sometimes we ask God for things that He wants to give to us, but He knows that it will be better for us if we get what we have asked Him for at a later time. So he'll say no, but only for a little while
  • OK, let's pretend that dinner is all done and the table is full of dishes and you ask your parents if you can help clean up the table. What do you think that they would say?
  • Sometimes we ask for things from God that are right on target – they would be good for us and help us to be more like Jesus. Those are the things we get a big YES about
  • Even if we think that God will say No to something He still wants us to ask him – He loves it when we talk to Him and you have to know that...
  • You can talk to God about anything

The "you can talk to God about anything" part was part of the curriculum we were using and is the "bottom line" which underpins the lesson. Each week there is a bottom line to sum up why we are up there talking about this stuff at all. I think the kids got into the question and answer format as it was a bit of a departure from the way things were normally done. As always - comments, accolades, and rebukes are more than welcome.

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