Mealtime and Bedtime Prayers for Children
It’s been a while since I’ve published my Monday Mailbag column, and my inbox is overflowing as a result. So I’m tackling the messages awaiting attention, beginning with this reader request for mealtime and bedtime prayers for children:
Request: A fun way to teach children to pray?
Dear Jennifer,
Do you have any short children’s prayers for mealtime and bedtime that could be used to make prayer dice for my nieces and nephew? I need six prayers for each die and would like to somehow print them on a 1- or 2-inch cube.
That way, when children roll the dice, they can say whatever prayer lands on top. I’d love to have two dice: one with all bedtime prayers and one with all mealtime prayers. Could you make something like that for me?
Respectfully,
Connie
Response: Children’s Prayer Dice, Coming Up!
Well, Connie, I didn’t have anything of that nature previously, but I’m intrigued by the concept and happy to help. Here are a few prayers I hope will suit.
MEALTIME PRAYERS FOR CHILDREN
BEDTIME PRAYERS FOR CHILDREN
Some of these prayers are familiar rhymes many of us learned as children: “God is great, God is good” and “Now I lay me down to sleep” immediately spring to mind.
Others are prayers our family routinely prays around our table: “Bless this food to nourish our bodies” or “Bless this meal and the hands that prepared it.”
And still more prayers are verses I made up especially for this little project. I hope you’ll be pleased with the results:
To assemble, cut out the dice and crease along the edges. Put a little glue on the tabs and stick together to form a cube.
I love the idea of establishing prayer as a daily habit from an early age. And also for giving especially young children extra guidance so that they can participate.
When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, He provided them with a model prayer to get them started. His doing so gave them pattern or framework to follow when using their own words to approach the Throne of Grace.
But it also provided acceptable wording for when they wanted to pray but couldn’t think what to say.
I think these prayer dice could help little children in a similar way. They’ll establish a pattern of gratitude and cultivate the habit of thanking God for His many blessings, whether they continue to use that exact wording or not.
