Here's an idea: Prayer Board

One of the most wonderful things to come of this prayer journey with kids is that one of my teachers, Michele went to Come to the Fire (the prayer conference), and as a result has made prayer time a priority in her classroom.

She made this her own by purchasing a white board, a jar and rocks.  The kids go to the adults right before class time, as they are visiting in the fellowship hall, and ask them for prayer requests. They write the prayer requests on the white board, and then at the beginning of class time, they choose one that they want to pray for and then pray together.  The kids may not be comfortable praying out loud, so in that case, one of the adults prays for their request.

The adults will tell the kids when the prayers are answered, and they get to put a rock in the jar to represent an answered prayer.  It's so cool how the adults will tell the kids about their answered prayers, and thank them for praying for them.  I love it that the adults are taking the prayers of the children seriously instead of belittling them, or talking down to them.

Setting Up the Prayer Journal

So, the spiral notebooks were to become the prayer journals for for my kids.  This is how I set them up. 

Either you or the kids themselves can label the pages like this:
Prayers for Me
Prayers for My Family
Prayers for my Church
Prayers for my Friends
(you can make more categories as you think of them or they fit into what you're doing.)

• For children who are not yet writing, let them draw pictures of their prayers. 
• There will be some kids who want to spend a LOT of time with their journals, and then some that don't really enjoy it.  That's why it's important to vary your prayer times to make sure that you're reaching all the different learning styles with your prayer time.
• The children (especially the little ones) may want to show you their pictures they've drawn and explain to you what they are.
• You keep the journals in your classroom.  It's important that the kids feel safe to write whatever they want in the journal so they can express what's in their hearts there.  I would discourage parents from reading them or letting the kids take them home.

I Heart Spiral Notebooks!

I do! When my children are cleaning out my home as an old woman, they won’t find a collection of newspapers or old magazines; there won’t be shopping bags or Tupperware; but they’ll probably find lots and lots of spiral notebooks.

During the summer, when all the school supplies were put on sale, I was delighted to find out that a local store had spiral notebooks on sale for a nickel! I went as quickly as I could and bought an entire case! I happily put them in my trunk where they stayed for about two months—until Come to the Fire.

So as the Lord was guiding me to what I should do with the kids, he reminded me of the case of spirals in my trunk and told me that I was to give every child one.  So that's what I did!

We began that day to journal our prayers as a group. Each time, they spread out around the room and write in their journal quietly and reverently. We’ve done this for a year now. The Lord has given me creative ways to pray, and the kids remind me about their prayer journals if we don’t get them out regularly! They’ve prayed incredible things, and some of them have had strong conversations with the Father, praying with a freedom that almost takes my breath away! I’ve learned things about faith from these kids; they’ve seen answers to prayer and are readily giving God the Glory!

I will probably always love spirals, but now they have a whole new meaning for me!

Come to the Fire

The Lord spoke to me about praying with kids at a conference.  Come to the Fire has been a meaningful part of the last few years of my life. I have to admit I was skeptical at first about attending. I wasn’t interested in another women’s conference with a parade of speakers meant to entertain, taking the listener through emotional highs and lows without much substance in-between.

That’s SO not what I found at this conference! The first year I attended was incredible and a story unto itself, but the story I tell here is about the second time I went to the conference.


One of the speakers, Beth Coppedge told of her daughter having a prayer group for young girls. As the story unfolded, the Holy Spirit began to speak to me about the children to whom I minister. Then, alone with my thoughts on the plane trip home, he began to give some legs to what he wanted me to do.

First, I was to go home and begin praying with the kids in my church.  Not just saying prayers at the beginning and at the end of our times together, but teaching them to pray. 

I began to think about resources I'd seen on the market about prayer with children, and couldn't really come up with more than a handful. 

Little did I know that his plan for praying with kids would start in the trunk of my car! 

I'll explain that later, but would like to invite you to check out the website mentioned above, Come to the Fire.  What I've heard there and the way the Lord has spoken to me through these times of getting away and being with him has made such a difference in my life!

so here's the thing

I want to share with you what I've been doing with the children in our church for the last couple of years as I've focused on prayer.  I've been a children's pastor for lots of years, and I can't remember a time in my ministry when I've had more fun or learned more!

It's been a couple of years since this story/journey/adventure began.  So I'll try to remember and relay what we've done.  You know how they always say write it down or you'll forget?  I SO wish I would have started writing all this down way earlier than now!

Oh and I almost forgot!  I love ideas!  If you have ideas of how you've used prayer with children, please share them!