Wednesday, February 20, 2013

What's Working Wednesday: Praying ACTS with my Kids

What's Working Wednesday is my weekly post to showcase something that is working for me or my family at the moment. It may not work for us forever and it may or may not work for you.

Lately, for family devotions, we have continued to read through the book of Psalms backwards (only 23 days to The Match!!) and have been using Look Up to Lent (we have the paper version that we picked up at a church last year). 

I recently read an idea in a blog post that I thought would be good to implement in our home for prayer. I had heard of and tried praying ACTS before but had never tried it with my kids. The blog post recommended that the parent prompt the kids with words below in italics and let the kids finish the sentences in what I call "popcorn style"  with everyone saying words or phrases as they think of them (I've put some of my kids words in parenthesis).

Adoration: God you are so…
(powerful, merciful - you don't give us what we deserve, good, generous, loving, just, holy, true, wonderful, amazing)
Confession: God, I’m sorry…
(for not listening, not sharing, for annoying my sister, for my bad attitude)
Thanksgiving: Lord thank you for…
(my family, friends, for forgiving us, a chance to be here with Grandma and Grandpa, loving us, providing all we need, yummy food, my birthday is only 7 days away)
Supplication: Lord help me…
(be a blessing here, be a good friend, not to annoy my sisters, to get my school done quickly, please help my tooth to feel better, please help Uncle Doug, Aunt Kendra and Jack with his mom's passing)

We've used it over the last couple of weeks and it has humbled me and brought me to tears listening to my kids talk to God. They have such faith and I love listening to them talk to our great God and getting a glimpse into their hearts.

What tools have you used to help your children learn to pray?

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