Healing Board Prayers

This is an easy and very visual way to help children to pray for healing, for themselves and others.

You will need: A flattened cardboard box or a board, plasters (fabric plasters are best to write on), felt tip pens.

Having talked about Jesus’ healing miracles, we set up a board that the children could use every week to pray for those who need healing.  We wrote words from Luke 6:19 about Jesus healing the sick at the top of the board and then encouraged children to write on plasters the names of those they knew who were ill.  They then stuck the plasters to the board as a sign of their prayer to God for healing.  This is a very popular prayer station!

Prayer Chatterboxes

Children seem to love playing with these origami ‘fortune tellers’ or ‘chatterboxes’ and I started to think about how we could use them for prayer…

We experimented at church and at our school lunctime club and they went down very well!

This activity needs to be done in groups of 2 or 3 and you can print off versions of the prayer chatterbox by clicking below. If you’re not sure how to make them get a child to show you how!  When children have chosen their colour and number, their partner lifts the flap to see what they have to pray for:   Please, thanks, sorry, friends, family.  Sorry prayers can be said silently and finished with a spoken Amen so that we know it’s time to swap turns!

A printable version can be found here.  When they’ve tested them out, challenge children to make their own version.

All Age: Jigsaw Intercessions

This is a really easy, tactile idea to use for a guided group of children and it would also work in an all age service.  All you need is for everyone to be holding a jigsaw piece (it’s a great way to use jigsaws that have pieces missing so can’t be used any more!)

Have either an adult or a child introduce each section and then leave space for response, either silent or out loud.

Hold the jigsaw piece in your hand and pray for yourself

Ask God to help you.  Thank Him for the good things in your life.  Ask him to help you see the big picture of the plan He has for your life.

Look at the parts of your piece that reach outwards.

Pray for people who reach out and help and show love to others.  Thank God for the people who help and show love to you.

Look at the parts of your piece that have spaces waiting to be filled. 

Pray for people who have lost something or someone or who feel that they have something missing in their lives.  Ask God to help them to know that they are loved by Him.

Try to fit your piece into the piece of the person next to you (it probably won’t fit!)

Pray for people who find it hard to fit in, people who have moved to a new place, people who feel they have no friends, people who are being bullied.  Pray that they will find peace, friends and happiness.

Hold your piece and think of someone from your community, your friends or family that you would like to pray for. 

Thank God for that person and ask God to bless and help them.

Magnetic Thank You Prayers

This prayer activity is especially helpful for using with children under 5 as it helps them to choose things that they would like to say thanks to God for (sometimes it’s very difficult to think of something on the spot!)

You will need: a baking tray, laminated pictures, sticky magnetic tape.

Print off some pictures of things that children might like to say thanks to God for.  See the photo for examples, but I used pictures of food, people, toys, animals, weather etc.

Cut out and laminate the pictures and stick a little bit of magnetic tape on the bakc of each one.

Encourage the children to pick a picture and then work with them to say ‘Thank you God for….Amen!’

Sorry Prayers

Here are 3 easy ideas for helping children to say sorry to God which will also help them to understand something of the forgiveness He gives.  For ‘sorry’ prayers it is important for the children to know that what they are saying is between them and God only if they want it to be. children can use letters, pictures or symbols to communicate to God alone what they are saying sorry for.

Chalkboard sorry prayers

Use plain water to paint prayers onto chalkboard.  The water will dry and disappear to symbolise God’s forgiveness

Whiteboard sorry prayers

Write or draw prayers with whiteboard pens onto whiteboards or laminated paper.  Rub off as a sign of forgiveness.

Sorry ‘bin’

Write or draw prayers onto paper, say sorry to God and then screw then up and put them in the bin as a sign of them being dealt with.