This week, First Love Church is wrapping up the study on the 4 Pillars of the Early Church by digging into the topic of prayer! As the adults spent time learning about prayer and putting it into practice in the main sanctuary, the children of FLC also had a beautiful moment with the Lord!

First, we read a passage from the Book of Matthew in the Children's Bible:

Jesus Teaches About Prayer

"So when you pray, you should pray like this: 'Our Father in heaven, we pray that your name will always be kept holy. We pray that your kingdom will come. We pray that what you want will be done, here on earth as it is in heaven. Give us the food we need for each day. Forgive the sins we have done, just as we have forgiven those who did wrong to us. And do not cause us to be tested; but save us from the Evil One.' [The kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours forever. Amen.] (Matthew 6:9-13)

The kids learned that they don't have to pray that exact prayer every time, but that Jesus was giving them some good ideas about how to pray. It's important, for example, to know that you can talk to God like a father, because that's who He is to us. Then they learned that in Heaven, nobody is sick or sad. We all decided that we want earth to be just like Heaven, and we can pray for that to happen! They also learned that God is holy, or in other words, very good and special. And we all discussed the importance of thanking God for giving us the things we need, asking Him to help us forgive one another, and to protect us from bad things.

Once we were done learning how Jesus taught us to pray, we all sat together on our new prayer blanket. It turned out to be a great visual tool for the children to understand that although you can pray anytime and anywhere, it's so good to set aside a special quiet time with God, or to come together with the family of God to pray! When we prayed, we tried to remember all of the things that Jesus spoke about in His prayer and we added it into our own prayer! And of course, we ended our prayer with, "In Jesus' name, amen!"

All of the children loved our special moment of prayer, and one 5-year-old boy said this about our new prayer blanket: "Praying is comfy!"

Each week the adult leaders of the Children's Ministry take time to pray for the entire group of kids. It is so important to intercede for this new generation. They need to be filled with God's love and good thoughts toward them so that when the negative things of the world try to pummel them, they will be able to stand firm on God's love and truth!