More prayer ideas for children at home and in the classroom

Wow! I received such a great response to yesterday's blog, I decided to share some more great prayer ideas for kids.

• Prayer Scrapbook

Several pastors' wives suggested creating a prayer journal with photos as prayer reminders. "V" in the Midwest suggested a different theme for each day:

Sunday - Church, pastors, Sunday School Teachers, etc
Monday - Home, Family, Extended family with photos of each one
Tuesday - Schools including teachers, administrators, volunteers, bus drivers, etc.
Wednesday - Our Nation, President, Government Officials, Local Government Officials, etc.
Thursday - Teen Challenge, Samaritan's Purse, any organizations you support
Friday - Missionaries and world situations like the war in Iraq, poverty, etc.
Saturday - Anything Day : Those prayer requests that are important to the children like pets, people they know who need extra prayer, etc.

To adapt this to a classroom situation, have the children make collage pages for a spiral binder, using page protectors so the pictures can be changed as needed. Have them cut photos out of magazines for church, family, and school. Use brochures or missionary prayer cards for those pages. Perhaps you could designate each Sunday as a special prayer day. The first Sunday of the month, pray for your church, etc.

Thanks "V"!

• Prayer Chain

Another ministry friend I know as "pw" suggested making a prayer chain. You know, the same paper chains children make at Christmas out of construction paper. She starts with a heart, decorated with a Bible verse and glitter and hangs it on the wall to remind the children we pray for others because we love them.

Then for each prayer request, a chain is added with the request and date on it. As God answers prayers, a note is attached directly to the corresponding link on the chain with the date on it. This could be another heart with a thank you to God on it if desired.

Great idea "pw".

Let me add my two cents to the above idea - to use the prayer chain as an object lesson, you could have each child make a series of links with their requests on them. Then have the children gather in a circle and each take ahold of one end of their chain with one hand and the next person's chain with their other hand to form an unbroken circle showing the strength we have in corporate prayer. When we fail to pray, the chain is broken.

• Global Praying

Here's another Idea I have used for missionary praying. I found a clear inflatable globe (like a beach ball). We sat in a circle and sang "He's got the Whole World In His hands," and tossed the ball back and forth across the circle. As each child caught the ball, they closed their eyes and pointed to a place on the globe. We then prayed for the missionaries there as well as the people for salvation and whatever else needed to be addressed in that country.

If you can't find an inflatable globe, a wall map works well too with push pins and little flags (Could be played like "Pin the tail on the donkey.")

This is really great and I'm getting a lot of wonderful ideas to adapt for my Children's Church group! Thanks to all who have contributed so far! Feel free to leave your comments or ideas

Bonnie