We learned to pray for virtually everything, flowers, daytime, night time; for rest and home and all things good; for the world so sweet and for the food we eat; for great gray elephants and a little yellow bee;

When we weren’t thanking God, we learned to ask God to make me polite and kind to everyone; to let His love guard me through the night and wake me with the morning light.

I would encourage every parent to purchase a book such as this one, and begin immediately to teach your child to pray. The best way to do that, is to pray with them.

Along with those simple prayers, teach your children to pray, the Lord’s Prayer. Some people would disagree with my last piece of advise, that is, teach them the Lord’s Prayer.

William Barclay, a well known Biblical commentator, as said about the Lord’s Prayer,

"First and foremost, this is a disciple’s prayer. It is a prayer that the disciples of Jesus should only pray. The Lord’s prayer can only really be prayed when the man who prays it knows what he is saying, and he cannot know that until he has entered into discipleship."

While I agree that it is a disciple’s prayer, I strongly believe one must not wait until they are a disciple to pray the Lord’s Prayer. It is a prayer that I believe will help teach children about discipleship and lead them into discipleship.

That is why, with the suggestion of the Sunday school teachers, we have moved the Lord’s Prayer to after the Junior Sermon, so that the children will be present to pray the Lord’s Prayer, thus reinforcing what they are being taught in Sunday School.

"Our Father who art in heaven....."

Only you can answer the first three questions, but I can tell you that the Lord’s Prayer has six petitions. The first three have to do with God and with the glory of God. The second three have to do with our needs and our necessities.

Jesus teaches us to begin the prayer, Our Father, because we must first give God His supreme place. Then and only then, do we turn to ourselves and our needs and our desires. Why should we do this, because only when God is given His proper place that all things in our life will fall into their proper place. Prayer must never be an attempt to bend the will of God to our desires. Prayer must always be an attempt to submit our wills to the will of God.

The second part of the prayer which begins with, Give us this day our daily bread.." deals with the three essential needs of humanity. It deals with the three spheres of times within which you and I live.

First we ask for bread. We are asking for that which is necessary for the maintenance of life, physical, emotional, spiritual life. We are bringing the needs of our present to God.

Second we ask for forgiveness. We are bringing our past into the presence of God.

Third we ask for help in temptation. We are thereby committing our future into the hands of God.

These three petitions teach us to lay the present, past and future before God’s grace.

"Our Father, who art in heaven.."

The Lord’s prayer not only lays our life in the presence of God, it also brings the whole of God to our lives. When we ask for bread to sustain our earthly lives, that request immediately directs our thoughts to God, the Father, the Creator and the Sustainer of life. When we ask for forgiveness, that request directs our thoughts to God the Son, Jesus Christ our Savior and Redeemer. When we ask for help for future temptation, that request immediately directs our thoughts to God, the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, the Strenghtener, the Illuminator, the Guide and Guardian of our way.

In the most amazing way this brief second part of the Lord’s prayer takes the present, the past, and the future, the whole of our life and presents it to God, the Father, God, the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

In the Lord’s Prayer Jesus teaches us to bring the whole of life to the whole of God, and to bring the whole of God to the whole of life.

Our Father, who art in heaven

Hallowed be Thy name

Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven

Give us this day our daily bread

Forgive our debts, as we forgive our debtors

Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil

AMEN

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