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Pray Always
Pray Always Lesson Objective: To teach children to pray often and make each prayer different.
Scriptural reference: D&C 68:25-28 “and they shall also teach their children to pray”
Materials : Picture of Daniel from picture packet (I-14), Bible, flannel board characters
Daniel was a young man of Jerusalem who depended on the Lord to guide him. When his country was invaded, he had been among those taken captive by the conquerors. The king of these lands liked Daniel because of his great wisdom. Darius, King of Persia, set 120 princes over all his vast kingdom with 3 presidents at their head, of whom Daniel came first.
The Persian princes resented having Daniel, a Hebrew captive, rule over them; so they spied on him to report to King Darius any wrong he did. But they could not find anything wrong with Daniel. They did notice tho, that 3 times every day he went to his room, kneeled and prayed to his God in whom they did not believe.
Finally they worked out a plan. They wrote a rule that any person making a petition or request to anyone but the King should be cast into a den of lions. They took it to the king Darius who was pleased and signed the decree, and it became law.
Daniel knew what had happened, but he trusted the Lord and continued to pray as before. The princes watched, and then ran to the King saying, “Daniel regardeth not thee, O King……he maketh his petition (to his God) three times a day.”
When Darius saw that he had been tricked, he worked until evening to save Daniel. But the law was unchangeable; so Daniel was thrown into the den of lions. The king was so upset that he neither ate nor slept that night. Early the next morning, he went in haste to the den of lions and called out, ” O Daniel….is thy God, who thou servest continually able to deliver thee from lions:” Daniel replied “My God hath sent his angel, and he hath shut the lion’s mouth that they have not hurt me.”
Daniel was released immediately. Then King Darius made a law that all the people should respect the God of Daniel for he said, “…….he is the living God….(who) worketh wonders in heaven and in earth.” (Daniel 1:1-6, 5:31, 6:1-28)
Activity: (NEEDED phones from steps of prayer FHE packet, and prayer tests)
Discuss with your kids that each prayer should be different. Saying the same prayer over and over is not truly praying. Demonstrate using the phone, how awful it would be to have the same things said over and over no matter what the conversation. Use the following “Prayer test” to help them change their prayer habits.
1. Do I feel near or close to Heavenly Father while I pray?
2. Do I use common phrases that mean little to me?
3. Do I feel a need to talk to my Heavenly Father several times a day?
4. Do I feel that my Heavenly Father is listening?
5. Do I take my specific needs, problems, desires to the Lord?
6. Do I feel I receive the help I need?
Encourage a discussion of ideas to improve these areas.
Make prayer rocks, prayer charts or some other reminder system (we have a poster on each door of our house that says “Ere I left this room, did I think to Pray?”) to remind us to pray. Hold Family prayers morn and eve, personal, prayers on food, etc. Make sure each child gets a chance (even if they are little and you have to “pretend” they are saying the prayer…..e.g. Mother or Father says Repeat after me, Dear Heavenly Father, etc.) It doesn’t take long for them to love doing this! All of our kids have started at 18 months or so, mumbling along…….(and yes we have funny memories of words like Jeesa Triste. or blessing the food at EVERY PRAYER! Our 3 year old still does!
Dessert: Chocolate Peanut butter cookies
1 can of frosting (chocolate 1 cup peanut butter
1 egg 1 1/2 cups flour
Sugar
Heat oven to 375. Lightly grease cookie sheets. Reserve 1/3 cup frosting. Combine frosting, peanut butter and egg. Stir in flour by hand. Shape dough into 1 inch balls. Flatten to 2 inch diameter with glass dipped in sugar. Bake at °375 for 4 to 7 minutes. Do not over bake. Cool and frost lightly with remaining frosting. Makes 4 dozen
Country Night
In our home, we have “German Night” with Pork Snitzels, Apple Studel for dessert and our lesson can have a theme. Sometimes, we wear jumpers/white lace blouses for the women and the men wear suspenders with green or black pants and a red/white checkered shirt. The lesson can be fun and we usually try to have music and a video that we can watch that is about Germany or Austria.
We have also had “Italian”, “Mexican” and “Biblical” nights. Going to the library to find videos and books to do the research is part of the fun in preparing for these special evenings.
Caramel Apples
A reminder that Family Night can be simple fun!
Our family had a wonderful Family Home Evening the other night; we made caramel apples, then ate supper, 2 of us cleaned up
the kitchen quickly and then we all played UNO (a mattel game) for about 45 minutes while we ate the caramel apples. It was
so much fun and even Katie (almost 4) could join in–she helped me play and she can match the colors. Plus, the teenage boys
enjoyed it too! (A definite plus!)