What does prayer time look like at your house?
In our home, nightly prayers can be a chaotic time of convincing my four-year-old to speak, attempting to teach her what to pray for, and trying to stop my one-year-old catapulting off the bed and donking her sister on the head with an Elsa doll.
So I was delighted to receive Anglican Aid’s Big Prayers for Little People prayer cards. Having a visual aid that helps my daughter grow in prayer may not completely eradicate the chaos of bedtime prayer, but it certainly helps bring focus to our time together.
Anglican Aid’s set of 11 prayer cards are hot off the press. They are available for free to encourage families and children everywhere to pray big prayers and engage with the key overseas aid and development projects the organisation supports.
“Many of our Anglican Aid staff are parents and grandparents,” says the Rev Canon Tim Swan, CEO of Anglican Aid. “Even with my kids, I struggle to explain the big things going on in our world – and I’m leading an aid organisation!
We came up with this idea together to help grown-ups pray for global issues with their kids.
“The cards reflect the nature of Anglican Aid’s international work, which cares for families and children facing poverty and hardship. While many adults pray for these projects using the Anglican Aid prayer diary and PrayerMate app, the cards allow children to participate, too.”
Canon Swan adds that often it is children overseas, and their families, who are being supported through education, clean water and disability inclusion projects. “We’d love families here to be praying for their brothers and sisters in Christ overseas.”
God works through families
Designing a resource that encouraged families to prioritise praying together was key for Canon Swan. “God works through families. In fact, his promises are to 'you and your children' [Gen 17:7]. When we learn from Jesus and pray, ‘Our Father…’, we model to each other that we are all alike as dependent children before God, and we model what Jesus meant when he said, ‘Let the children come to me’.
“Together we find refuge in our Father and, as we pray for his kingdom to come, we lift our vision and participate together in shaping the world, as God uses our prayers to bring about his glorious purposes! Family prayer helps bring the right perspective to all of life.”
While being committed to praying together as a family for global issues, previously Canon Swan found some missionary prayer letters and situations around the world too complex for young children to grasp.
“These Big Prayers for Little People cards help keep prayer points manageably simple, while also lifting our vision to pray around the world, and helping us to have soft hearts towards the poor.
“I hope these prayer cards will help families to care for the poor and needy as God cares for the poor and needy, and ultimately strengthen relationships between Sydney Christians and our brothers and sisters around the world.”
You can order the cards for free on the Anglican Aid website.
