Luke 11: 1-4; 9-13

^{1   And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. 2   And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. 3   Give us day by day our daily bread. 4   And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil…. 9   And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. 10   For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. 11   If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? 12   Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? 13   If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?}

Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep.
May angels watch me through the night,
Until I wake by morning light.

Dear friends, what I’d like to do this morning is invite you to pray with the children in your life. Perhaps some of you have little children in your life right now. You’re a parent, a grandparent, an aunt, an uncle, a godparent, a dear friend. That’s wonderful. And perhaps there are some of you who will have children in your lives in the future. You never know. For all of you, I invite you to take these ideas and meditate on them before the Lord, because praying with children is one of the most beautiful gifts you can give them.

Do you pray with your children? I bet many of you do. Did you have the privilege of being able to pray as a child? What comes to your memory when you think about your childhood prayers? I am blessed to have been brought up in a praying household. Times were not always easy in my household, but we were together in this. We went to church together on Sunday morning, and I observed my parents praying every day.

My mother tells me that in Poland, the tradition for countless generations was that a Polish Christian mother would take the little baby’s hands and put them together and say night time prayers with the baby. And the baby would grow up with this feeling of praying hands. It’s a beautiful thing.

Did you have the opportunity to pray when you were a child? Do you remember the prayers?
Angel of God, my guardian dear,
To whom God’s love commits me here,
Ever this day be at my side,
To light and guard, to rule and guide.
Does anybody remember that prayer?

By the way, those who remember that prayer, would you also add to it, “Angel of God, please wake me up at __” whatever time needed to get up? Did you do that? It’s effective; you’d be surprised!

The one thing that pointed us all in the same direction when I was a child was that we went to church together. My parents were hard-working people. My father worked in an automobile factory, and he wore a blue work shirt and jeans and heavy-duty work shoes everyday. But if I was to get up early enough to see Dad just before he went to work at 4:30 in the morning, I would come down to the kitchen and smell coffee cooking. Dad would be on his knees on the kitchen floor, using the chair as a prayer stand. I would see him pray. And I remember the times I saw my mother pray, beside her bed in the morning as she woke up. It was a beautiful thing to teach a child.

How is this for a thought? Children will tend to do some of what you say and all of what you do. Let me say it again. Children will tend to do some of what you say and all of what you do. Happy thought? Scary thought? A little of both?

Let your children know that you are a Christian. Oh, dear parents, even if you think it’s not “taking”, even if you think your children may be rejecting it, let your children know the comfort you get from your faith. Let your children know how your faith takes you through tough times in life. Let your children know that your relationship with God is a relationship that will never be broken, now or ever. Your relationship when you call Jesus Christ into your heart is permanent and reliable and solid from here to eternity. Let your children know that that’s where you are. It’s a beautiful thing.

How do you pray with your children specifically? May I quickly mention three ways? Number one, what many of you are already doing – bring your children to church. Show your children that you go to church, and bring your children to church. I love it when children are the evangelists. I love it when they say, “Mommy, Daddy, let’s go to church. It’s time to go. Come on.” Let your children bring you and you bring them to church. The Ten Commandments say, “Remember the Lord’s day, to keep it holy.” Let me tell you something that brings me a great deal of spiritual satisfaction. I have an agreement with the Lord that unless I am deathly ill and wired to my bed, I’m going to go to church, whether I’m the preacher or I’m on vacation or I’m in Europe and can’t understand a word of what they’re doing in the service – I’ll figure enough of it out. But I need to go to church on a Sunday morning, to affirm my love for the Lord.

I invite you to take that commandment seriously. It will bring you joy! And let your children know that you take it seriously. Bring your children to church.

Second, pray over meals. Praying over meals is a wonderful thing. Probably many of you already do it. But if you don’t, let me give you an idea of how you can do it in a very easy way, especially if it’s unfamiliar to you. Here’s what it is: Somebody at the table -- one of the children or adults, it doesn’t matter-- just before you’re ready to eat, says, “Are you ready? Are you ready?” Then everyone adopts a prayer posture and says “Thank you, God, for everything. Amen.” That isn’t hard, any yet you’ve just blessed your meal. It’s easy to do in a restaurant. Sometimes it’s hard to hold hands and bow your heads and have a lengthy prayer in a restaurant. It’s a little awkward. But this shouldn’t be awkward, right?

Now if you’re having a special meal, I invite you to go out and get a book of graces at a Christian bookstore. There are some beauties out there. Select a grace, invite everyone to pray, read the grace, and then say, “As we all say together, ‘Thank you, God, for everything.’” That’s something you can all participate in, and it’s a beautiful meal blessing. Another wonderful thing to do is to pray at night time, evening prayers. Maybe a lot of you do it already. But let me tell you, children are much more open to praying than adults tend to think they are. Sometimes adults think that their children won’t like this. But you’d be surprised – kids are remarkable! Kids have a wonderful way with God, being fresh from the hand of the Lord. Children’s prayers are remarkably effective, so trust them. Try praying in the evening with the child you’re entrusted to love. You can take turns, one time the adult, the next time the child. That’s a good way to do it – the child will always remember whose turn it is. And maybe sometime the child won’t feel like doing it, so you take two turns. It’s okay.

Let me tell you a prayer formula that was developed not by me but by a very wonderful child that I know. He begins his prayers with “Thank you, God, for this wonderful day.” It’s his idea. And then he lists the things he’s grateful for on any given day. It can be anything – friends, family, meals, pets, situations – but his prayers are always thanksgivings. And then he concludes with “As we say together, thank you, God, for everything.”

It’s wonderful to have a standard opening and closing when you pray with children. I was told that sometimes folks like to say, “And God bless Mom and Dad and whoever” and some children say, “God, please bless everybody in the world and please bless everybody in my life.” That’s another thing you can do. Do pray with your children. You may be in for an eye-opening experience to hear what’s on their hearts and to see what they share with God. Trust them. Children are remarkable in this way. These three things are only a few, just to get your thinking started. You share with me, too, prayer experiences that you’ve had with children.

In closing, let me see this. For some of you, praying with children won’t be quite possible at this moment for a variety of reasons. May I suggest this to you? You can always pray for the special children in your life. You can pray privately in your heart for them. You can always do that. And the second thing you can always do is to bless them. You can speak a word of blessing to them. You can say, “My daughter, God bless you everyday.” “Little boy, you are wonderful. God is blessing you right now.” You see, as soon as you insert the words “God” and “bless” it becomes a blessing for the child. The child doesn’t have to say anything; you’ve said it for them, and they know that this powerful adult in their life has blessed them. Won’t you consider it?

My prayer will be answered this morning if one adult says a prayer with a child because of it, because God loves children. Jesus loves the little children, and God loves you, too. And so do I. God bless you all. Amen.