One of my professors at seminary said that if he could teach one thing to people who are new to the faith, he would teach him to listen to God. With that said, I wonder how you do that – teach someone to listen to God? My daughter has recently started to pray or imitate my wife and I when we pray. The most common way Ayumi sees us praying is right before meals. So now, when we say, “Let’s pray,” she clasps her hands, bows her head and listens to us as we pray. We have noticed that Ayumi tells us to pray at random times too. Just out of nowhere she’ll go, “Pray?” and then she’ll clasp her hands, bow her and stays silent – for like a second or two.
As my daughter grows up, I want her to have a relationship with Jesus and for her to learn how to pray – listening, abiding, speaking to God. I want her to have the freedom to ask God for anything, the boldness to say anything to God and the habit to go to God in any situation. But how do you teach her to listen to the voice of God? How do you do that?
Thanks for reading.
Joe
That is so cool Joe! Listening to children pray is such a blessing that God is doing his thing!!
So cute, Joe! Thanks for sharing. And good for Ayumi for prompting you to pray throughout the day. Good question, too, about how to teach children to pray. Hey, have you heard of PrayKids! magazine that NavPress puts out? That’s more for elementary school aged kids though.
So funny. Emmett does the same thing, except that he’ll sit in his chair, fold his hands and begin to “pray” by mumbling, and closing it off with an “AUM.” This signals the beginning of the meal, as if to say, “let’s eat, everyone.”
One of the things that I (and my wife) have had to remind myself of is that I need to pray not only for health and prosperity on behalf of my son, but also that he would understand God when He chooses to reveal Himself. We’re trying to stay as faithful as possible, but a lot of this is up to the Lord.
Good question – we’re trying to learn this in our ADULT Sunday School class. For us, making space and being okay with awkwardness are our first two baby steps towards being able to better discern the voice of the Lord. We have a long way to go. Thanks for boldly stepping out there.