‘How to Pray’ Childrens Lesson on The Lord’s Prayer

BIG IDEA: ANYONE CAN PRAY

AIM: The ‘How to Pray’ Childrens Lesson on The Lord’s Prayer is aimed at helping your children to connect with the heart of prayer and to understand the simplicity of its nature.

SONG IDEAS:

1. ‘The Lord’s Prayer’ by SaddleBack Kids with motions

GAME IDEAS:

This week split all the kids into colored teams and have them wear different colored vests or facepaint to compete in the games.

1. Three Legged Race. (regular/widescreen) Pair up children and tie their legs together using a piece of fabric. Then have them race in their pairs to the other end of the room or field. The quickest pair are the winners.
2. Army Crawl. (regular/widescreen) Have children get into teams and line up. The first person gets down onto their hands and feet (not their knees). The next person crawls under them and then gets on their hands and feet. This keeps happening until the last person does the same. After the last person does this, the first person goes back under everyone. This keeps happening until the team get to the end of the line. The winning team is the team to reach the line first. Watch the game here.
3. Agility Ladder Drills. Children take turns to run and jump over a ladder in different ways. You could split the group into teams and have them do different agility drills, the fastest team to complete the relay being the winners. View ladder drills here.
4. Ladder Game.Two teams line up and then sit down in parallel lines facing each other. One person from each line puts their feet against the opposite person’s feet. They now become a pair. Each pair is given a number. When their number is called the pair stand up and must run over everyone’s feet and around and back into their place. The quickest member of the pair is the winner. Watch it here.

BIG VERSE: Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Romans 12:12.

(regular/widescreen)

Download Bible Cards and Bible Card Posters.

Sergeant: Well, cadets! This week we have some workouts to get you on your toes! Partner up. Every one of you will need a partner as we train together. Part of prayer is praying for each other. That means having each other’s backs. Carrying each others burdens. Never leaving a soldier behind. [Lead the children in some partner workouts. You can check out some workouts here.]

SET the Scene:

Read Matthew 6:9-13. You can also use this fun action story to help share the passage.

“This, then, is how you should pray:

VIDEO IDEAS:

1. ‘Jesus Storybook Bible: Lord’s Prayer’ by Zondervan
2. ‘Lord’s Prayer for Children’ by iCharacter
3. ‘The Lord’s Prayer’ Beginners Bible version

 

SPOT the Simple Meaning:

1) PRAY LIKE A CHILD

Watch the ‘Children Pray the Lord’s Prayer’ by Zondervan video.

Say: The first line of the Lord’s prayer says what? [Get feedback] That’s right, it says “Our Father”. God is our father and that makes us His children! So when we pray we can pray like children! We don’t have to try to be adults. We can pray like God’s kids, because that is what we are!

1 John 3:1 say “For how great is the love that the Father lavishes on us, that we should be called children of God and that is what we are!” When we pray we can pray like God’s children. A child asks their father when they need something. They rely on their father and ask him for help. They talk to him about their day and they thank him when they get given something. They sorry to their father when they do something wrong. God is our good Father and we know that we can talk to Him anytime and He is there.

An easy way to think about praying is to remind ourselves it is to talk with our Father. We can say prayers to say sorry, thank you and help. We can tell Him what we love about Him. We can tell Him everything. Isn’t that amazing! our prayers make a difference because our Father God hears them and He is the One that answers us when we pray.

2) PRAY FOR WHAT GOD WANTS

Take a group photo and then have the kids look at the photograph. 

Say: When we took that group photo and looked at the photo, who did you look out for? Who did you want to see first? [Get feedback] We all like to see ourselves! We like to see what we looked like. Why? Because it’s natural for people to look out and care most about themselves.

In the Lord’s Prayer Jesus teaches us to care about God’s kingdom coming to earth. He teaches us to pray for God’s will to be done. That means praying for what God wants – not just what we want. It makes thinking about what Go wants for others and praying for them too! 2 Timothy 2:4 says “A soldier wants to please his commanding officer, so he does not waste his time doing the things that most people do.” God is our leader, our Master and King; so we don’t want to waste time doing what He does not love.

Now how do we know what God wants? I might have my own list of things I want, but God’s list might be different to mine. How will I know? [Get feedback] We know what He wants when we start to learn about Him in the Bible. We find out what He loves and what He hates. When we know what He loves we know what He wants His kingdom to be like on earth.

[Draw a big castle on a large piece of white paper.] God is the King and the type of kingdom He wants is the same as the things that He loves. Shout out some of the things that He wants! [Get the kids to shout out things: love, joy, peace etc. Then think about what it might mean practical. Peace = people getting along, no more fighting, Love = People working together etc Friends to know Jesus = telling them about Him]. So when we pray we want to pray prayers that ask for God’s kingdom to come on earth and what He wants to see happen.

 

SEARCH the Scriptures:

Muddy Mess. (regular/widescreen) Fill a bucket for each team with mud and hide pictures or words with each of the bible characters names in the mud. Teams must relay race to use their hands to find one of the bible characters before running back to tag the next team member. The winning team is the team to find all the bible characters first.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. When was the last time that you prayed?
2. Do you find praying helpful? Why/why not?
3. When you talk to God what words do you use?

 

SENSE How You Feel:

Encourage the children to think about

1. Make a string phone by using two paper cups and a piece of string. Put a hole in the bottom of both the cups. Thread the string through them both and tie them on each end, making sure there is enough slack in the string. Then two children can hold the open part of the cups to their ear and talk through it to one another.
2. Put together a prayer bracelet where each color bead represents a different part of the Lords prayer. Blue – God is Father, White – holy is your name, Purple – God is King over His kingdom, Green – on earth as it is in heaven, yellow – wheat/bread, red – Jesus’ blood- forgiveness of sins, black – deliver us from evil, gold – yours is the kingdom and the glory!
3. Mould: The children should mould praying hands with clay or play dough.
4. Sensory: Use cotton wool and blue material with gold fabric also. Invite the children to imagine what heaven with the Father is like.
5. Build: Invite the children to build with lego or building blocks what they think God’s kingdom is like.
6. Fill in/Color the activity booklets 5-7s or 8-11s.

 

SEEK God:

Say: One of the types of prayers the Lord’s Prayer shows us is that we can pray is sorry prayers. Is there something that you need something that you need to say sorry to God for? He hates it when we hurt others, but He loves us. He wants to forgive us when we do wrong. Yet He expects us to forgive others when they do wrong against us.

Plasticine/Playdough Prayers: Make the person or create something that reminds you of what you have done. Pray for forgiveness then squish it to remind you that God forgives you.