teaching Prayer to kids & night time prayer

[*charmalea*]

mods please move if this is in the worng place .

what prayers do you say at night ? and what prayers have you taught your childeren to say at night .

Currently DS and i say " now i lay me down to sleep , i pray the lord my soul to keep,( then i forget the words and make up the ending like -) and wake me in the morning light amen "

and theres a similar one :

i know there is on which says " now i lay me down to sleep , i pray the lord my soul to keep , and if i shall die before i wake , i pray for you my soul to take"

now i havent taught DS that because saying it hurts , kinda like if i say it , it might come true ,and the though of DS's life being taken while he sleeps is heart wrenching , and i think getting a 3 yr old to talk about dying is scary, like hes too young to know about it , but in a way i think they need to learn about death , just not in a nightly prayer as the last thing they say before they sleep , kwim ?


So , do you have any happy prayers that your childern say at night ? made up ones or popular ones ?

DH is trying to teach " our father " but he doesnt remember the words

looking forward to see how others teadch prayer to kiddies

[AngelPunks]

my best friend's nieces are taught to thank the god and the goddess for the day and for the elementals for each element, they also meditate for a few minutes, as they get older the meditation times are increased, the 3 year old can meditate for about a minute now.

[diannescruffy]

We keep ours simple, my kids are a bit older but I think it's important to pray in a way that the children actually understand what they are saying.

Thank you God for keeping us safe, thank you for watching over my family and thank you God for giving us the things we need and let us be able to love each other and most of all thank you for loving me.

Then if the children have anything that they wish to add, often they will pray for their friends at school or ask for help with work at school etc.

Regards,
Dianne

[Patooties]

i know there is on which says " now i lay me down to sleep , i pray the lord my soul to keep , and if i shall die before i wake , i pray for you my soul to take"

I know exactly what you mean. There is another version - "now i lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep, may Angels watch me through the night, until I wake in morning Light, Amen."

We say our prayer as a family at dinner. We thank God for the day and anything extra special that happened, we ask him to look after people that are unwell. We are teaching them Hail Mary at the moment as well, as it's one that they hadn't heard before.

[Cricket]

We do "Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord me safe to keep, When in the morning, Lord, I wake, be with me then for Jesus sake. Amen."

As a child I also learned "Jesus tender Shepherd hear me, bless thy little lamb tonight, through the darkness be thou near me, keep me safe 'til morning light. All this day thy hand hath led me, and I thank thee for thy care, thou hast warmed me, clothed and fed me, listen to my evening prayer. Amen."

There's a version of Our Father by Christian singer Steve Green, sung by kids and set to music. It's pretty easy for kids to learn. Music always helps the memory.

All the best!

[*charmalea*]

Thanks all so much ladies !! It's so cute teaching ds to repeat them , I will say them to dd at night so she can become to recongise them !


I used to sing prayers at mass in school ,
maybe I should try and remember them and sing then to the kids , some of them were fun !

[~breeze~]

Lea, have you seen the video of Brianna saying her bedtime prayers in my facebook videos? I think she started saying them at about 2.5 yrs??

She learnt it very easily. We taught her the one her Dad used to say as a child, it was also in a prayer book my parents gave her for her Christening. It goes like this...

Angel of God
my guardian dear
to whom Gods love
commits me here
ever this day
be at my side
to light to guard
to rule to guide
Amen

We said each line & had her repeat, then the next line & so on.... she could say it all by herself within a month I'm sure (could have been a bit longer, it was so long ago! LOL)

Good luck teaching Nixon
xxx

ETA: I just emailed you the video on facebook

[Becs_bubs]

We keep ours simple, my kids are a bit older but I think it's important to pray in a way that the children actually understand what they are saying.

Thank you God for keeping us safe, thank you for watching over my family and thank you God for giving us the things we need and let us be able to love each other and most of all thank you for loving me.

Then if the children have anything that they wish to add, often they will pray for their friends at school or ask for help with work at school etc.

Regards,
Dianne

I do the same with my kids - have done since they were toddlers - I pray, then they pray (they're 4 and 7) Lately they have been both praying also that bub comes out soon and safely and that both bub and I recover from the birth quickly very cute! Another aspect that I've tried to teach them is not just to ask for things that they want in their lives, but to be thankful when they GET the things that they want, and thankful for what they have....

[Ca Plane Pour Moi]

I say a prayer with DS every night - although he doesn't join in.

We say:

Almightly Lord
Thank you for the [adjectives] day and for [some of the day's activities].
I pray you will forgive us our sins, including [something I have done bad then something DS has done bad], heal us of our ills [insert ills here for anyone we love] and continue to bless our lives. Thank you for blessing us with [blessing].
I pray that we will awake in the morning refreshed after a full night's sleep (that part often said very fervently by me!) and that we will be ready, willing and able to do Your will in the new day, because we love You.
In Jesus' name
Amen.

DS occasionally joins in with the Amen but bedtime is such a pain that tbh I sometimes think the prayers are just to calm me down atm!