Dear Parent:

One of the core values of First Baptist Arlington is that God designed the family as the primary place for discipleship. The Faith Journey initiative exists to partner with you as you guide your child’s spiritual journey one step at a time. Age-appropriate kits have been created to help you leverage the best faith formation strategy for your child’s stage of development.

Getting Started

On this prayer page, you will find practical ideas and suggested resources to help you teach your child to talk to God.

We hope you find this kit helpful in the process of forming the faith of your child at home. Feel free to visit fbca.org/faithjourney to learn more or to determine if your child/children are ready for other Faith Journey markers.

Blessings,

The Young Families Ministry Team

Make a commitment to be a 7•5•2 home!

7 - Pray seven days a week individually for your spouse, kids, grandkids, parents, siblings, etc.
5 - Pray five times a week (including meals & bedtime) as a family.
2 - Pray at least two times a week with your spouse.

Suggestions for using your prayer calendar:

Place your prayer calendar on your fridge or in some other central location of your home.

Have each family member use a specific color marker or sticker to mark their 7 times of individual prayer.
Write out a 5 or use a sticker to mark your times of praying together as a family. Write out a 2 or a different specific sticker to mark your times of praying together as a couple.
Use the " My Home's Top Prayer Requests" for each family member to share their prayer requests that they would like the family to pray for.
Celebrate at the end of each week and talk about the prayers that God has answered in the week.
For the family prayer, give each family member a certain prayer day that they can decide when you will pray, where you will pray, and how you will pray.
Use this simple prayer prompting to jump start your family prayer times. Have an adult or teen start the following statements and then have each member take turns fill in the in the blank.
- God, I love you because...
- Thank you God for...
- God, Please help...
- God, I am sorry for...

One of the greatest things you can do is to help your child develop a relationship with God through prayer. Prayer is how we communicate with and connect to our Heavenly Father. Nurture your child’s faith by praying together as a family and by guiding them in the practice of praying individually.

BE AN EXAMPLE

Allow your child to see and hear you pray on a regular basis. Take time to stop and give thanks in times when God blesses you or answers a prayer. Model prayer in times of difficulty or when seeking wisdom for important decisions. Pray for those in your family and others you know are in need.

JUMP START PRAYERS

Use these ideas to help start prayer time with your child.

Sentence Prayers: Take turns allowing each person who is comfortable doing so to pray a very short, one sentence prayer. It can be as simple as “Please heal Uncle Paul.” “Thank you for giving Troy a new friend.” or “I’m sorry for losing my temper with everyone earlier today.”
Fill-in-the-Blank Prayers: Use pre-written language to guide and focus prayer times such as the following starter lines:
- God, I love you because…
- Thank you God for…
- God, please help…
- God, I’m sorry for…

Prayer Tools and Ideas

Prayer Board: Keep a small dry erase board in a high traffic area of your home and use it to note items the family is praying for together.
Prayer Journal: Consider purchasing a journal for your child to start recording prayers and how God answers them.
Mirror prayers: Using a dry erase marker, write a list of prayer concerns on the child’s bathroom mirror so he or she remembers to pause and pray after brushing teeth.

Family Routine

Making prayer a regular part of your family culture will help make it a normal part of your child’s life. Consider incorporating some of the following in your family routine.

Mealtime: Briefly give thanks before you eat, then wait until everyone has finished to have a longer time of prayer together.
Bedtime: The first person in the family to go to bed (usually the youngest) alerts everyone else that it is time for an end-of-day prayer together.
Drive time: As you start the engine, pause for a brief prayer together asking God to go with you and invite everyone to pray a sentence prayer for any concern about the upcoming activities of the day. This is a great routine to begin as you drive to school in the morning.
Walks: Taking a walk together is the ideal time to pray. Or pause at the end to pray about the matters discussed during your walk.