As Christians, giving thanks is an important part of our relationship with God. We want to show our gratitude to him, so even from the time we are very young we learn to say our prayer of thanksgiving especially at meal time.
You as a result will likely start early on in life attempting to teach your child to say their “mealtime prayer”. There are several common prayers that are often taught to children from an early age these include:
Prayer: A Child’s Grace
God is great and God is Good,
And we thank God for our food;
By God’s hand we must be fed,
Give us Lord, our daily bread.
Amen.– Traditional
Children’s Mealtime Prayer
Thank you for the world so sweet,
Thank you for the food we eat.
Thank you for the birds that sing,
Thank you God for everything.– Author Unknown
These and others like them are repetitious and rhythmic therefore are easier for children to recall and learn. You may also try prayer that is set to music to help them to learn them easier.
Another strategy if your child is really small is to have them to repeat the prayer to you line by line until they can say it on their own, without your assistance.
As they grow you want to teach your child to not only just “recite” a mealtime prayer but to begin to develop their own blessings. Even though it is a “blessing” and a prayer of thanks you want to teach them that all prayers should be sincere. We never want our children to be insincere when talking to God therefore you should be sure to teach them the importance of reference when it comes to talking to God. No matter what the occasion.
Start earlier, even when they are small children can learn to give thanks to God and to lift up a prayer to him. Over time it will become more and more important to them and an important part of your mealtime. It can also be a positive witness to those around you or to those who enjoy a meal with your family from time to time. It can also help your child to share Jesus with others.
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I have to say that it’s amazing how quickly they “pick up” how to pray, too. It helps when its modeled for them – but when they begin to add their own requests or thanks – I know God must dance with joy over their hearts!
Great advice here – thanks for sharing it!!!
My 3 year old daughter has been reciting prayers at mealtime since about 2 1/2. We started off having her repeat after us, line for line. Then, because of the repetiveness of it, she just did the whole prayer by herself one evening. I will never forget that day. I cried…of course! What an amazing thing to witness as a parent…seeing your child thank Jesus and understand why. God is so good!!
My problem is that I ask my daughter during meal time prayer to come up with something different to thank god for, but she isn’t grasping the idea of thankfulness. She said it is polite to say but the meaning is lost. I tried to explain grattitude but again she just isn’t grasping it. Are there any good christian children’s learning books on this subject?
Shane
Before we begin our prayer, I ask my 3 year old what he loved about today. Then we say thank you to God for whatever it was. Sometimes it’s shallow (favorite toy) but most often it’s for the beauty of the day or people we saw. We usually also ask for help for something as well (telling the truth, being kind) based on our Sunday school lesson that week. Hope this helps!