We have talked about how to pray, where to pray, when to
pray… now let’s talk about why we pray.
Heavenly Father has asked us to pray to show love for Him,
but we also pray to receive direction, get help in choosing the right, and to
receive blessings.
Heavenly Father sees the whole picture, not just what we can
see. Sometimes our prayers are not
answered in the way we think or wish they would be. But, we need to have faith that Heavenly
Father knows better and will give us the things we need.
Through
Prayer we can receive direction. Set up some chairs to create a maze. Have someone blindfolded and try to walk
through a maze. Have another child be
Heavenly Father, giving the first child directions. Do this a couple more times to give more kids
a chance to participate.
Just as it is difficult to navigate through a maze without
being able to see, it is much easier to navigate through life if we pray and
get help from Heavenly Father. He can
see the end of the maze and knows just how to get out.
Sometimes there are mazes with more than one path, though.
2.
We can pray to receive help making good
choices. Have a child at the front of
the room. To the right have a poster
that says BLESSINGS. To the left have a
poster that says SORROW. On the board
have numbered papers covering scenarios. (You hit your brother, you told a lie,
you lost your temper and yelled at your mom, you helped your mom make dinner,
you shared your toys with your sister, you were happy and helpful at school,
etc.) Have the child at the front choose
a number. If it is a good choice, have
them move one step to the right. If it
is a bad choice, have them move two steps to the left. Tell them that there is someone who knows
which numbers are good and bad. If they
ask for help, have another child come remove the paper on one of the positive
numbers.
Explain that it can be difficult to make the right choices
when we are faced with decisions. We can
pray for guidance and Heavenly Father will help us choose the right.
3.
We can pray to receive blessings. Sometimes in life, bad things happen- we get
hurt, family members get sick, we struggle in school. Sometimes, we are just confused about
something. If we pray, Heavenly Father will
bless us with the things we need. Many
of the songs we sing in Sacrament meeting or in Primary are actually
prayers. Can you think of a song that
sounds like a prayer? Sing one or two of
these songs and talk about the lyrics.
Wrap it up by saying that there are many reasons we
pray. Heavenly Father knows more than we
know and we need to get his help in life.
Share testimony about prayer.
