HomePoint D@H Prayer - teen

Prayer

Do you remember that Sunday School song about reading your Bible and praying every day? As parents, we long for the outcome of that song for our students: that they would continue to grow; however, how do we effectively encourage our students to develop healthy prayer lives? The answer is actually rather simple: model and mold this essential practice within the home.

Model a healthy prayer life

One of the greatest things we as parents can do is to make sure that we are modeling a healthy prayer life to our own students. The principle is simple: most students forget most of the things that they are told by their parents and teachers over the years, but most students remember most of the things that they saw their parents and teachers do over the years. How is this done?

Start It
Whether your student knows it or not, commit to be a prayer warrior.
Show it
One of the best ways to model a prayer life to your student is to pray in front of your student. This, of course, is not for show or to express some form of self-righteousness; instead, it is your student seeing you diligently seeking God’s will for your life and submitting to Him.
Share it
Share with your student what you are praying about/for, and how God is growing you in the process!
Seek it
Look for opportunities to pray with your student. Some ideas include at the start of the day as a family, when situations arise, before meals, after discipline (what a great time to thank God for His grace), and so many others! From gratitude to petition, follow Paul’s call to remain in a posture and preparedness to pray (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18).

Set the example of a healthy prayer life at home, but know that encouraging such practices in the life of your student takes time and intentionality.

Mold a healthy prayer life

Remind them that they are God’s masterpiece …They don’t (and can’t) impress the Creator of language; they only need to come to Him as they are. Ask them regularly if they have “prayed about it”
Let the default response in your household be to turn to the King of all in all circumstances. School trouble? Pray. Big game? Pray. About to ask somebody to prom? Pray. Whenever an opportunity comes, may our response be what a wise man used to conclude often: “pray, pray, pray.”
Teach them HOW to pray…teach your student to praise God, seek His will, request well, confess sin, and ask for spiritual strength in their prayers.
We do not need to overcomplicate prayer; we just need to do it. It starts with us and flows into our intentional discipleship of our students at home.

Disciple@Home

Prayer

Carefully curated resources for Disciple@Home. Check out all the books and other resources to help in your next step through your family discipleship journey.

H B Charles Jr

It Happens After Prayer: Biblical Motivation for Believing Prayer

Life’s inevitable difficulties and disappointments can discourage us from praying, but our response should be to pray anyway and keep praying. Whatever we seek, God invites us to come to Him with confidence, believing that He is able to answer—and He will answer.

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