Saturday, December 06, 2008

Prayers For Children

Children's Prayers

I am hoping all my Christian bloggy friends will let me know what prayers they have taught their children.
I have a few I was taught (at bedtime and before meals). What prayers does your child say?
If you post prayers on your blog, let me know and I will link to it.

Here's ones that I have said and some additional ones I found on line.

Scripture that Children's prayers are based on:

Thank you God, for taking away my sins and helping me to live right (1 Peter 2:24).
Help me to know Jesus’ love and to feel Your power in me (Ephesians 3:19).
I trust God to always protect me (Psalm 91:11, 14).
Teach me God to be honest about my sins so I can confess them and be forgiven (1 John 1:9).
I want to sing and tell everyone how wonderful You are (Psalm 150)


Before Meal Grace:

Thank you for the world so sweet,

Thank you for the food we eat,

Thank you for the birds that sing,

Thank you God for everything.


God is great, God is good.

And we thank Him, For our food. Amen.


Come Lord Jesus, be our guest,
and let these gifts to us be blessed.


Bless us, O Lord, and these Thy gifts, which we are about to receive from Thy bounty, through Christ our Lord. Amen.


Bedtime:

Now I lay me down to sleep,

I pray the Lord my soul to keep

If I should die before I wake

I pray the Lord my soul to take

God bless our family and our friends.

Now I lay me down to sleep,

I pray the Lord my soul to keep

May angels watch me

through the night and

wake me with the morning light. Amen.


I pray to, Lord, my soul to keep; Guide and guard me through the night

and wake me with the morning's light. Amen


At the close of every day,

Lord, to Thee I kneel and pray.

Look upon Thy little child,

Look in love and mercy mild.

O forgive and wash away

All my naughtiness this day,

And both when I sleep and wake

Bless me for my Savior's sake. Amen.


The Lord's Prayer:

Our Father who art in heaven;

Hallowed be Thy Name; Thy kingdom come;

Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven;

Give us this day our daily bread;

And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us;

And lead us not into temptation; But deliver us from evil;

For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen


Have you read this book, Prayer for a Child by R. Field?
Do you have an opinion on it?

Please say prayers for this little California child, Hannah, at Journey to Lily Hope (her little sister). Hannah is in the hospital with a serious disease.

Thank you!
Update: Thank you Michelle for sharing the prayers that you sing at meal time and bedtime!

9 comments:

Vivian M said...

We let Kerri make up her own prayers for now at bed time, but we say the hebrew prayers for the Sabbath and the holidays (straight out of the Torah - the Jewish "bible").
I know that does not help you much though! I think it is wonderful that you are teaching your daughter the power and beauty of prayers.

kitchu said...

Just a little funny, an old boyfriend used to think God's name was Howard when he was little. He prayed the Our father: Our Father, who art in heaven, Howard be thy name.

Love that. For the longest time he really thought that was God's name.

DBW said...

Ours is only 10 mos old and can't talk yet, so we haven't really taught her any. That being said, there is a section in the back of the Book of Common Prayer devoted to prayers for families, which we intend to use. There is also the "Anglican Family Prayer Book" which covers almost all bases. I also intend on bribing her to memorize the Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be in Latin when the time comes.
DBW

Anonymous said...

O's bedtime prayer is this and has been since she learned to talk:

"Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. Keep me safely through the night. Wake me with the morning light. Dear Jesus, please take care of mommy and daddy, the grandmas and the papas, all our family and friends. Keep our soldiers safe. Amen"

Her mealtime prayer is sung:
God our Father, God our Father
we thank you, we thank you
For our many blessings, for our many blessings
We thank you, we thank you.
Amen

She goes to a Christian school and they start learning bible verses in Genesis...I just asked her to tell me one she's learned at school and she started with Gen 1:1. I'm proud of my girl!

Donna said...

One we said when I was little (and that I also taught my kids) is:

Heavenly Father, hear our prayer.
Keep us in Thy loving care.
Guide us through the live-long day,
In our work and in our play.
Keep us pure, sweet, kind and true,
In everything we say and do.
Amen.

Donna
Our Blog: Double Happiness!

Margaret M said...

We do the bedtime prayer but say:

Now I lay me down to sleep, Pray the Lord my soul to keep, Angels watch me through the night, Keep me till the morning light....

At the end, we always say God Bless Lily's birth Mommy and Daddy, may they know how much we lover her!

We also say for a quick meal grace:

A, B, C, D, E, F, G, Thank you God for feeding me (or Thank you God for feeding my family)

The funny thing about this prayer was that when Graeme went to school and they sang the A, B, C song. He did the sign of the cross, folded his hands and bowed his head in prayer. So this WARNING...this one can be confusing.

Prayer for a child is one of my favorite books...I LOVE the illustrations.

Tracy said...

Here's a sweet little bedtime one my daughter and I say...

I see the moon
And the moon sees me.
God bless the moon.
And God bless me.
Amen.

We do some of the others listed and she also does the Johnny Appleseed prayer at meals - she learned it at preschool - and can sing the whole thing..

Oh the Lord is good to me
And so I thank the Lord
For giving me the things I need
The sun and the rain and the apple seed.
The Lord is good to me.
Amen. Amen. Amen, Amen, Amen.
Aaaaaaaaaamen.

Anonymous said...

We had to edit "Now I Lay Me Down to sleep" to the same version that several folks above listed:
"Now I lay me down to sleep, Pray the Lord my soul to keep, Angels watch me through the night, Keep me till the morning light..."
Our daughter was terrified of the "if I should die before I wake..." line.
And, if you think about it, it's a scary concept - that you might die in your sleep...
just an fyi!
AA is simply stunning - you have a lovely family!
peace,
kath

Paul & Denice said...

Alyson,

Didn't realize that there was more the bedtime prayer. I'm printing this one to teach Olivia.

Denice