Five Finger Prayer

Since children are very tactile, teaching them through touch and movement is a great way to help them learn. This can also be done when teaching them to pray! 

One of my favorite ways to do this is with the Five Finger Prayer! There are several versions of this one, but here is the one I like:

• Simply start with a salutation (the thumb) such as, "Dear God" or "Loving God."
• Then, for the index finger, say "I'm sorry for . . . . " This is a very basic method to begin teaching children about confession and forgiveness of sins.
• For the middle finger, children should say thank you to God! "Thanks you for my family," "Thank you for my friends," Thank you for food, toys, or pets," are some common ways kids like to finish this sentence. 
• When you get to the ring finger, it's time to ask God to help others. "Please help a sick family member or friend" and "Please help homeless people," are some I hear frequently when I do this with children. 
• Of course, the pinky finger comes next! Use this one to ask God for personal help. "Help me be nice to my sibling," "Help be do my best in school," or even "Help me keep my undies dry at night!" will work here. 
• Finally, close your fingers around the palm of your hand or press your palms together and say "Amen!" 

One super cute thing I've done with this is to let children make a place-mat with their handprint. I typed out the phrase for each finger and left a space for children to put their handprint on the side. It looks like this:

You could also do this by tracing the hand and writing the phrases "on the fingers" as it is in the graphic above. It can then be laminated and used at the table for mealtime prayers or kept under a pillow for bedtime prayers. It  makes a cute keepsake, too!  

Have you every used the Five Finger Prayer??

(Psst . .  It works for adults, too!)

Beach Ball Prayers

One of my favorite places to go is to the beach!! Lots of families in our congregation spend time at the beach over the summer and through out the year as well. In the spirit of summertime, I included these three ways to pray with a beach ball in the summer devotional we created for families in our congregation and preschool. 

Who knew you could pray with a beach ball? What a fun, interactive way to get kids engaged! 

"Thank you" prayer toss - This one is super easy! You simply toss the beach ball back and forth (or around a circle). When you catch the ball, say "Thank you God for . . . . . ." Then, toss the ball to someone else. Repeat as many times as you like! 

Beach Ball Psalms - Write the following verses on the sections of a beach ball with a permanent marker. Toss the ball to one another and say the verse your thumb lands near! 

• Psalm 23:1 - "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want." 
• Psalm 106:1 - " O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever"
• Psalm 139:14 - " . . .I am fearfully and wonderfully made.Wonderful are your works"
• Psalm 67:1 - "May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us"
• Psalm 145:8 - "The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love"
• Psalm 51:10 - "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me."

Pray the colors of the ball -  

Red: Pray for someone who is hurt, sick, or sad

Blue: Thank god for water in the ocean and in the pool to keep us cool!

White: Pray for peace in the world and/or your community.

Yellow: Thank God for the sun and the stars in the sky.

Orange:  Pray for God to help you with something you are worried about.

Green: Thank God for the grass, the trees, and all the creatures he created.

Purple: Thanks God for the special people in your life like family, friends, and teachers

What other ways can you think of to use a beach ball while you pray? 

The Road To Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35)/What Does Jesus Look Like?

Most people have in their minds a preconceived image of Jesus. Typically, it's a Caucasian man with long-ish brown hair, wearing some kind of robe/toga type of clothing. Two truths, however, are that A) we don't really know what Jesus looked like because there are no photos or descriptions of his physical appearance and B) based on the region of the world where he lived, he probably was NOT Caucasian with blue eyes and light hair. (If you google "images of Jesus" as I suggest below, you will see that the vast majority portray him as a fair skinned, blue-eyed, rather svelte man.) 

Like most things, though, children want a picture of Jesus to associate with the man they learn about in bible stories. Often, the image they conjure is either one of a man who looks similar to other men in their lives or an image presented to them by books, television, etc. 

As adults, we are expected to have the answers and can find it hard to let that answer be, "I don't know." When it comes to the question of what Jesus looked like, though, that is precisely the answer we should give because it is the truth.   

The story of the Road to Emmaus is a great reminder of this, I think. In the story, Jesus resurrected walks alongside Cleopas and another man who certainly should have recognized Jesus, but did not. Their lack of recognition is a great segue into disucssing Jesus' appearance to children.

Recently, when I did a children's sermon on this, I "googles" some images of Jesus. Without telling the children who it was, I showed them a few and asked if they recognized the man in the picture. 

I showed the pictures int his order with the LEAST recognizable ones first:

1. Through advances in forensic science, an anthropologist proposed this image as that of a typical Galilean man. 
2. I like to call this one "movie star Jesus"
3. An African American image of Jesus
4. A little closer to the "typical" depiction of Jesus
5. The "status quo" blue-eyed, fair skinned Jesus

When I showed these pictures to the children, a few guessed the next to last was Jesus and they all said the last one was Jesus. However, they did not recognize the others as being Christ and even said the first one (probably the most culturally accurate) looked scary and mean. 

After that, I explained that there is no description of Jesus in the bible, so we really don't know what he looked like. I told them that it's okay to think about what He might have looked like and that we all might see something different in our minds when we think about it. I told them that I like to "see" Jesus in other people by noticing when people are kind or helpful - when people show love the way Jesus did. Even if we don't exactly know what Jesus looked liked, we know what he would have wanted to see in us and we can try to show Jesus to other people through our actions.