a conversation (part...

Prayer: A Conversation (part 1)

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© 2012 10:10 Kids! All rights reserved. www.tentenkids.com

a conversation (part one)

lesson 2

Big Idea: Prayer is a conversation: your side

Key verse: Philippians 4:6 – “Don't worry about anything. Instead, tell God about

everything. Ask and pray. Give thanks to him.”

Thoughts for leaders We often get caught in the trap of telling each other that prayer is “talking to God.” I’ve

said it, and there’s a good chance you have, too! It’s true, too – it’s just not the whole

truth. Because many of our kids are unchurched, we have an opportunity to bypass

tradition and return to the heart of the Bible. (Tradition is rich and beautiful and often we

will lean on it and incorporate it in our worship, but there are times when it may be

unhelpful as well). What am I talking about? Prayer as a conversation: talking, and

listening. Many of us divide these practices, and find ourselves divorcing the ideas to the

extent that we do not expect a response to our prayers, nor do we connect what we hear

from God to our petitions to Him. In this series, we want to have an equal emphasis on

what we say to God along with how we hear from God.

All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Reader’s Version®,

NIrV® Copyright © 1995, 1996, 1998 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

www.zondervan.com.

The “NIrV” and “New International Reader’s Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark

Office by Biblica, Inc.™


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Supplies list: Attention Grabber Large Group Small Group Memory Verse

Grandma costume

Teenager costume

Cell phone

Living room set

Large Group 3.2

printout

Copy of Large Group

3.2 (4 pages)

Pencil crayons or

markers

Prayer journals

Optional YouTube

video feed

(computer/projector)

Craft Table Games

Copies of Prayer

Journal Pages

(pages 14-16) for

each child – see

page 13 for printing

instructions.

Stapler

Coloured Pens or

markers

Blindfold

Boundary markers

(tape/pylons/gym

floor markings)


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Living room scene

Costumes for teenage girl & grandmother (casual clothes are fine)

Cell phone

Grandma: LaDawn? Is that you?

LaDawn: Hi, Grandma!

Grandma: Where were you?

LaDawn: I wanted to stop at the computer lab to send Jada a youtube video.

Grandma: a what? To who?

LaDawn: A video link. To Jada.

Grandma: Do I know Jada? Have I met her? Are you allowed to… what was that?

LaDawn: (rolls her eyes). Jada. No, you haven’t met her. She lives in Cincinatti, but she’s

like, practically my best friend. And it was just a funny video – it’s all good, Grandma.

Grandma: You’ve never met her and she’s your best friend?

LaDawn: Well, we’ve never met in person, but we talk all the time!

Grandma: On the phone?

LaDawn: No. Usually on facebook. Sometimes MSN. We text a lot. She uses twitter all

the time. You know. The usual.

Grandma: Are you speaking English?

LaDawn: On the computer, Grandma! We email and message each other and stuff on

the computer, okay?


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Attention Grabber continued…

Grandma: But if you’ve never seen her, how do you know who she is? Maybe she’s not

who she says she is.

LaDawn: We’ve been friends for two years, Grandma. Why would she lie? It’s not like

we’re doing anything bad. I know the rules about the internet. Jada and I just talk.

Grandma: Well, how did you meet her?

LaDawn: Ummm… Destiny`s brother’s girlfriend’s roommate posted this link on

facebook, and I made a comment and Jada, who knows the girlfriend’s cousins really well,

liked the comment, and messaged me, and ever since we’ve been friends.

Grandma: Huh? What is wrong with you, girl! Are we even on the same planet?

LaDawn: She just knows some of my friends, okay?

Grandma: So, your friends have met her?

LaDawn: Well, not my friends exactly, but my friends’ friends’ relatives… kinda…. I think.

I don’t know. It was really long ago that we first started chatting!

Phone chirps. LaDawn checks it and laughs.

Grandma: What was that?

LaDawn: Jada. She sent me a text – she got the video and thought it was funny.

Grandma: How do you know it was her?

LaDawn: I just recognize the way she talks. It’s Jada, trust me.

Grandma: So, let me see if I understand this: your best friend, whom you’ve never seen

and in fact nobody you’ve ever met has ever seen, is Jada. You don’t know what she looks

like or what she sounds like. But you talk to her all the time, just never face to face or

anything. Have I got it?

LaDawn: Yeah, I guess.

Grandma: Huh. And you think I’m crazy for talking to God!


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Does it seem a little funny to talk to someone you have never seen? Sometimes praying

sort of feels like talking to yourself, especially if you’re not used to it.

But we talk to people we can’t see all the time! Think about it: have you ever written a

letter? How about an email? Ever made a video or taken a picture to send to somebody?

Have you ever texted on the phone, sent somebody a message via internet or even talked

to someone on the phone? Every time you do any of those things, you are talking to

someone you can’t see! Now, I understand that it’s not quite the same thing as prayer,

but sometimes it can make it easier for us to pray when we realize it’s not that different

from the ways we talk to the people around us.

If you know exactly what you want to talk with God about, that’s great. When you pray,

you go ahead and talk to Him the way you want to!

Some of us, though, need a little help. Have you ever wanted to talk to someone, and

weren’t sure what to say? Sometimes we write down ahead of time what we want to tell

someone, just so that we get it right. It’s okay to do that with God, too. In fact, there’s a

really neat acronym – that means words whose first initial spell another word – that can

help remind us of different things we can talk to God about. The acronym is the word

PRAY.

P reminds us to Praise God! Praising God is like cheering for Him – it is a way we can

celebrate the great things God has done. So we can start our prayer to God by telling

Him how awesome He is! Can anyone think of one awesome thing God has done? I am

going to praise God for making this beautiful earth! So when I start praying, I might say

something like this: “God, you rock! I’m so impressed with Your creation and how

beautiful You made it! Thanks a lot!”

That’s praise, and that’s the first part of our prayer.

R stands for Regret – or repent. It means that we’re pretty sorry for the things we’ve done

that have hurt God. We might tell God about it and tell Him how sorry we are.

The letter A reminds us that we can Ask God. We might need help with something, or

know somebody that’s sick, or want a friend to trust Jesus, too. There are lots of things

we can ask God for. Our memory verse for today reminds us that we don’t have to worry

about anything, because we can present it to God and ask for His help. So, once we have

praised God, told Him our regrets (or repented), then we can ask for God’s help.


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Teaching Time continued…

The last letter in the word pray is the letter “Y”. That tells us to say Yes to God! This is a

part of the prayer that is more about listening than about talking, and we’ll learn more

about it in the next few weeks, but basically we want to finish our time talking with God

by agreeing to live His ways.

So when you’re praying, you can say whatever you want to God. Some of the people in

the Bible just cried because they were sad, and God heard them. Some were pretty mad

and told God so. Some were super happy and didn’t ask God for anything – they just kept

telling God how amazing He is! Some had tons of requests that they asked God for.

Everybody in the Bible prayed a little bit differently, which means we can too. It’s okay if

you pray differently than me. But when you’re stuck and want to know what to say to

God, that’s when we can use the PRAY acronym to remind us of things to say: Praise,

Regret, Ask and say Yes to God!


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Copy of Large Group 3.2 (4 pages)

Pencil crayons or markers

Prayer journals

Leader: Can you think of ten different ways you might communicate with someone you

can’t see?

Internet: Facebook, Twitter, Email, MSN

Phone: calling, texting

Media: making a poster, video, writing an article, advertisement

Personal: writing notes, a letter, sending a card,

Leader: How is it the same as talking to God? How is it different?

Leader: Last week, we tried praying with a candy prayer. This week we are going to use

our hands to pray. I have four pieces of paper here, and on each paper is a letter. Do you

remember what these letters stand for?

P – Praise

R – Regret (repent)

A – Ask

Y – Say YES to God

Leader: On each page, we are going to draw, write, or make up a symbol to represent our

prayers to God. For example, I might draw a sunshine on the letter “P” to represent how

glad I am that God created sunny days. I might write the initials L.G. on “R” to represent

something I am sorry for, but don’t want everyone to know about! I might write the name

of a friend on “A” that I am praying for, or draw a money symbol if I’m worried about

money. On “Y” I might draw a smiley face to show that I’m willing to do whatever God

says. Let’s take a few minutes and do this together. As we draw, we can talk about what

we’re drawing if we want, or we can keep it to ourselves.

Close with prayer journals, and thank God for hearing our prayers, whether said aloud or

written down!


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Philippians 4:6 – “Don't worry about anything. Instead, tell God about everything. Ask

and pray. Give thanks to him.”

Make up a song to learn this verse. Or, to learn it in the NIV version, use “Seeds of Faith”

song instead (it’s catchy and you will find this memory verse forever stuck in your head!)

Find it at www.seedsfamilyworship.net or use this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd35-M-xLX4&feature=player_embedded


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Print copies of Prayer Journal Pages (Prayer add-on) for each child.

Stapler

Coloured Pens or markers

Make your own prayer journals

Printing instructions: Print 1 copy of page 1 and page 2, back to back for the front & back

cover. Print multiple double sided copies of page 3 for inner pages.

Give each child 1 cover page, and multiple inner pages. Have the children personalize and

decorate the front cover with stickers and markers. Fold the book in half, and staple

along the middle spine. If time permits, help each child finish on prayer book entry

together before they take the prayer journals home.


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Blindfold

Boundary Markings (gym floor markings, tape, pylons, etc.)

Where Are You?

Define your playing area (small is good) by either playing in a small room, or marking out

boundaries for the children to stay within.

Choose one child to be “it” and blindfold that person. That person must try and catch

another player, while being blindfolded. The other players try to stay as quiet as possible

so as not to get caught. When the person who is “it” needs a clue, they ask “Where are

you?” Whenever they ask that, everyone else must call out “Here I am!” Switch the

player who is “it” once someone is caught.

a conversation (part...

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