If you grew up in a Christian home there’s a good chance your childhood bedtime routine included prayer with your parents. Perhaps you routinely prayed something like the words written above or maybe your prayer involved giving thanks for all the good things that happened that day. Some of us prayed at the side of our beds with our parents. Others prayed while in bed, mom or dad sitting on the edge of the bed. It was all part of a very comforting routine, an expectation in any “good” Christian household.
As a parent of teenaged boys I no longer can get away with the old wrote repetition prayers. How do I keep the routine going without it ringing hollow, nothing more than a habit passed along by tradition? Perhaps I should plan what we will say each night, avoiding the memorized prayers in order to bring something of substance before the throne of grace. If not a planned prayer, perhaps bedtime should involve something more spontaneous and less routine. After all, payer is a conversation with God. I do not want my kids asking me the same question over and over again night after night. Why would God want to hear the same non-petition night after night after night?
Of course the old standby routine prayers are good for helping younger children establish the habit of going to God in prayer. Yet, as they get older it seems like there is a need for something else. A little planning and a lot of listening can become an avenue for helping them learn to open their hearts to God. With the opportunity to speak openly with him about the things in life that concern them, perhaps prayer might become more real and meaningful. As a parent, spontaneous prayer might even afford the opportunity to get to know my children a little better by hearing what they lift up to God in prayer.
Moving forward our bedtime prayers are going to be a lot less routine. Some nights I will think ahead of time about concerns the children have expressed or about things that are on my heart concerning them. At other times we will just wing it, saying whatever is on our hearts. Whether planned ahead of time or spontaneous, our prayers will not follow the same wrote pattern of the past. I look forward to seeing how God responds as my children learn to earnestly seek him.
What do you think and what is involved in your family’s bedtime routine?
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