One of my most favorite things I get to do at work with them is talk about Jesus and the Bible. They ask the cutest questions about what it means to live for the Lord and love. Sometimes their questions surprise me and make me sit and think for a minute before I respond. There's even been a time or two where I've said, "well, let me look that up and pray about it and i'll get back to you. Is that okay?"
At the start of everyday we have prayer time together as a class. At the beginning of the year they would say their prayer requests out loud and I would pray for them. Then around Christmas time I started to ask them if anyone would like to pray for one of their friends prayer requests. At first there were only the same two that would raise their hand, the others would avert eye contact and start playing with their pencil.... haha, some things never change.
After a while, when the kiddos started noticing that this was a safe environment and no one would dare make fun of or laugh at them, more of them started to volunteer to pray. Then before I knew it I didn't have to do any of the praying for the prayer requests, I would just close up the prayer time b/c ALL of them wanted to pray and talk to God.
Some prayers are of course simple and childlike..."Dead God, please heal Dani's tummy ache, amen."
And then some were more detailed and animated...."Dear God, we know you can move mountains, so we know that you can provide a car for James' family. We trust you and believe that you will give us our needs. Please provide for James' family. Amen."
I have learned a lot through prayer time with my kiddos about prayer in our spiritual lives. Whether our prayers are simple or detailed and animated. The Lord delights in his children talking to him and turning to him for hope, help and healing. The Lord loves to hear how much we love him and thank him...whether we say it in 1 sentence or 10.
Well, the school year is ending, and my kiddos have grown into awesome prayer warriors. Their trust and faith astounds me! So I thought I'd try something new in class. I broke up my students into 3 groups of 3 this morning and asked them to pray in small groups w/their friends.
Of course being a teacher, I had to model how to do this, which was interesting. Then I let them try it out on their own. The 3 groups sat around in different areas of the room and I walked around listening and praying over them. I was one proud and happy teacher and believer.
I can't wait to watch them grow in this area during these last weeks of school.
God is good!
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