Pray Like This

Our Father in heaven,

may your name be kept holy.

May your Kingdom come soon.

May your will be done on earth,

as it is in heaven.

Give us today the food we need,

and forgive us our sins,

as we have forgiven those who sin against us.

And don’t let us yield to temptation,

but rescue us from the evil one. Matthew 6:9-13

IT SEEMS SIMPLE ENOUGH: Prayer is talking to God. And yet we struggle with it. Often when we pray as a family, such as before a meal, our prayers sound like we’re just going through the motions with no real desire to connect with our Father in praise, thanksgiving, confession, or petition. Just the same old “bless this food.”

But we want so much more for ourselves and our children. We want them to know how to truly commune with God in prayer. Just like Jesus’ disciples, we need to learn to pray. We want to learn to begin not with our requests, but with his honor. We want to welcome his Kingdom to come and his will to be done in our home and in our hearts. We want our children to know that God is our ultimate provider who delights in being depended upon. We want to be a family who is real about our sin and our need for forgiveness as well as our need to forgive. So as parents, we humble ourselves to name our sin and ask forgiveness. We humble ourselves to name the temptation from which we need to be rescued.

Father, may we keep your name holy. May our home be an outpost of your Kingdom, and may all who live here gladly conform to your will and your ways. You are the source of everything we need, and we ask you to provide as you see fit. You are the only one who can grant us forgiveness and the grace to forgive each other. You are our only source of power to say no to sinful desires, and our only source of rescue from the evil one who wants to claim us and our children as his own for eternity.