Helping Preschoolers Pray
Prayer time with three- and four-year-olds has its hazards: the children often volunteer to pray but then draw a blank the instant they close their eyes. Timid voices whisper, "I forget." At the Salisbury United Baptist Church in New Brunswick, a visual stimulus overcomes this problem. "We keep on hand a supply of simple pictures—a flower, a Bible, a bike, a church, a mom, a baby, a dad, a birthday cake, a bed," says Elizabeth Power. "Each child decides in advance what he or she would like to thank God for. They come up, choose a picture, and return to their seats. Then, one by one, they give thanks to their heavenly Father, looking at the picture in their laps if necessary." Mrs. Power and her husband, who teach the church's teen class, involve their teens once a month in junior church, where they devised this technique for tongue-tied preschoolers. "Toward the end of the year, the pictures can be phased out," they say. "The children are more at ease praying. Also, their attention span has grown considerably."
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