Today is Teach Me Jesus Thursday and I have a blogging friend, Carrie, contributing today’s post. In this post, she shares how she and her family learned to pray. Won’t you welcome her?

The only time I prayed aloud as a girl was at Sunday mass. The recitations were strictly the church’s choosing. We never bowed heads or touched hands at the dinner table. Nor did we kneel at the side of the bed and give thanks before rest. Sadly, God and Jesus Christ were reserved for one morning during the week and one nightly catechism class after school hours.

I wanted it to be different for my children. But the Bible was completely foreign to me. Praying with others publicly and outside of the church setting intimidated me.

Could I change? Could I train myself to become comfortable praying to God in the home?

The answer materialized subtly. It appeared to us quietly in the form of a sweet preschool song. Then steps slowly took shape and I learned how to teach myself and my family to pray.

1. Start simply

At my daughters’ preschool, the teachers taught the students a short Johnny Appleseed tune. Before snack, the children sat orderly at the miniature tables and sang these words:

Oh, the Lord is good to me

And so I thank the Lord

For giving me the things I need

The sun, the rain and the apple seed

The Lord is good to me!

Amen!

The song stuck. Like the preschoolers, we memorized the words too! Eventually, we began to repeat the song before the kids went to sleep every night.

2. Say grace

Soon, singing a thanksgiving song only at bedtime didn’t seem sufficient. So we started to hold hands and sing the Johnny Appleseed song at the dinner meal. It was fulfilling to hear all our voices united in melody as we acknowledged God’s presence in our lives.

3. Read the Bible together

I never opened a Bible until my late 30s. It wasn’t a coincidence that I began home educating the kids just as my spirit reawakened. Now we read the verses together. Sometimes we opt for a random verse or we search for a specific person in a particular book. Sometimes we study the King James translation and other days we favor an easy to understand children’s version. Whatever we use, we let the words linger and allow the lesson to take hold.

4. Memorize and recite

I always admired those men and women who could effortlessly recite a scripture verse. Never did I think I could be like them. Until I found myself praying alone and suddenly realized I remembered a verse! One of my favorite beginning resources for guiding and learning Bible verses was Scripture Adventures’ 21 Day Memory Challenge. Currently we are memorizing The Sermon on the Mount. To hear the words of Jesus spoken out of the mouths of babes is priceless!

5. Pray for others

To remain focused and unselfish in our prayer requests, I occasionally enlist helpful tools. At varying seasons of the year, I create blank gratitude cards. I keep a fresh stack in the dining room and the girls can write a note of thanksgiving. I also discovered a prayer star craft and adapted it for us. I simply printed a large star onto card stock, cut it out and my oldest wrote the names of family, friends, neighbors, or community causes on the points. It’s a terrific reminder to pray for those we love and for those things we care about.

It’s never too late to start a new behavior and tradition. We are living proof!

Children love to be involved so don’t be shy teaching different prayers or asking them to select one to read out loud. There’s nothing more powerful in a family unit than to grasp hands and pray together everyday.

How do you make your prayer time special?

About the Author, Carrie Lorfano
Carrie holds fast to her faith in Jesus as she forgives the past and learns to graciously greet the present. She dedicates every day to her husband and four children and celebrates their decision to home educate back in 2010. Her prayer is to encourage and validate other women by sharing her life journey in her blog, One Mother’s True Heart.