Feather Prayers for Peace

March 4, 2022Leave a comment

Hearing about war can be frightening. It’s hard for children to know what they can do to help. Here are some interactive prayers to help all ages to pray for peace.

You will need: one feather each

Feel the weight of the feather- how light it is.

Think of the things that worry us and weigh us down with stress. Think of the people in the world who are worried because they have nowhere safe to go. Ask God to lighten the load of that worry and stress.

Rub the strands of the feather against the grain. Ruffle and disrupt the feather.

Pray for all of those who are living disrupted lives because of fear, violence and war. Pray especially for people who are refugees from war and have to leave their homes and jobs to travel to a safer country.

Smooth the feather out.

Pray for those who work to bring peace to troubled areas of the world, even when it feels that there is no hope. Ask God to help them be wise and to stay safe.

Feel the softness of the feather.

Pray for softening of hearts amongst those who start the violence, those who are angry, those who cause disruption and war, those who act out of hate and greed. Ask God to change their hearts and to bring his peace.

Hold the feather.

Pray for yourself. Ask God to fill us with his peace when we are angry, worried or stressed. Pray that he will keep us safe and help us to bring peace to others.

Amen.

Mothering Sunday Button Thank You Prayers

March 7, 2021Leave a comment

Next Sunday is the day when we celebrate Mothering Sunday. It was traditionally a day in the middle of Lent when people who worked were able to have time off to visit their mothers and their ‘mother’ church, where they might have been baptised. One of the most popular readings to use on this day is John 19: 25- 27, when Jesus creates a new community of support for his grieving mother when he connects her with the disciple John, who takes her into his home as his mother. Just as John becomes a support for Mary and vice versa, in life it’s not necessarily just our mothers who give us ‘motherly’ or parental care. There are so many people, especially in church families, who form a community around us to help support us and give us strength. To help celebrate and give thanks for mothers and other caring figures in our lives, here are some prayers using an item you can easily find at home. Find a button and hold on to it when you pray.

Buttons hold things together

Who do you look to to help you when things are busy and stressful? Who can help you to figure out what to do when you are confused about how to keep going? Who helps when it feels as if your world is falling apart? Think of them and say thank you to God for them.

Buttons are strong

Think about the times when you have felt sad, upset or afraid. Who has helped you to be strong. Who is the strongest person you know? Thank God for those people.

Buttons come in different shapes and sizes

Those who care for us and keep us safe might be mothers, but they also might be other people in our lives. Try and count in your head how many different people have helped you during the past week. Thank God for each one of them.

When buttons are missing we notice and things don’t hold together as well as they did before

Some of the caring figures in our lives may have died and we miss the fact that they are no longer here. Take a moment to remember them and the love they shared with you. Thank God for them.

Prayers for peace

August 31, 2020Leave a comment

Here is a very visual and watchable way to help children to pray for peace and the bringing together of communities. You can also use things you are very likely to have a home, which is always a welcome bonus!

You will need: Kitchen roll, water, 2 cups, food colouring

Take 2 cups and fill them about 2/3 full with water. Into each cup, mix a different food colouring so that each cup’s water is a different colour. Try to get as strong a colour as possible.

Cut a strip of kitchen roll as long as a sheet of the roll and about 5cm wide.

Talk about divisions in communities we know or live in. What causes such divisions? Who or what helps to heal divisions and bring people together. Think about one of the names for Jesus which is ‘Prince of Peace.’ What does that mean? How can we help to bring about peace?

Think of a situation where there is division e.g. in a war. Put the paper towel as a bridge between the two cups, with each end of the towel in on of the cups. Pray that God will help to heal the divisions and bring people together in peace, as you watch the coloured water ‘climb’ up the towel, meet in the middle of the towel and combine to form a new colour (e.g. red in one cup and yellow in the other will lead to an eventual combination of orange in the middle). Try different colours for different situations and watch your peace prayers bring about new colours!

Rainbow Prayers

June 30, 2020Leave a comment

Rainbows have been such an important symbol during the Coronavirus crisis of how we are coming together as a community and supporting each other. Here is a prayer activity that children can easily do with their families at home.

You will need: items in the different colours of the rainbow- red, yellow, orange, green, blue, indigo and violet. You might want to make it a challenge to find one or two items of each colour inside or outside the house or you might use a product that has lots of the same things in all colours e.g. Lego

Ue the items to pray:

Choose a colour, hold that colour item and thank God for as many things as you can think of that are that colour too.
pray for people that each colour reminds you of
Allocate types of prayer to different colours- choose a colour and pray that prayer e.g.

red- people who are ill

orange- people who need to be brave

yellow-thanks for things that make us happy

green- the environment

blue- people who are sad

indigo- people who take care of us

violet- questions you would like to ask God

draw rainbows and ask God to bless people in your community. Give the pictures to neighbours or hang then in your windows

Light Peg Prayers

January 30, 2019Leave a comment

This is a really simple but effective idea to help children to think and pray about Jesus bringing light and hope into situations.

You will need: A String of peg lights (or fairy lights with paper clips to fasten prayers to the string), paper, pens, photos of people, photos of places from magazines or the internet.

Ask children who they know who they would like to pray for, or which places they think need help and hope at the moment. They can write or draw them on paper or use photos. Turn on the light string and peg the photos and pieces of paper to the string. Pray that these people and places will have the light of Jesus in their lives and will know that he loves them.