The Prayers of Children

Remembering to pray with the honesty of children, can help us along our faith walk.

I was recently talking to a new friend of mine who is bilingual. The concept of speaking two languages has always intrigued me. It’s likely because I took two years of Spanish in high school and five quarters in college and I still can’t speak it. When I learned that she was bilingual, I asked her same thing I always ask people who speak two languages.

“Which language do you think in?” She told me that she thinks in English now, but that she was having her daughter’s baptism service in Spanish because she prays in Spanish. I was fascinated.

She said she learned all of her prayers as a child, in Spanish and that’s the only way she knows how to pray.

So, it doesn’t matter how well she knows English, and by talking to her, you would have no clue that she speaks any other language, when she talks to God, she talks to Him in the language of her childhood, the language she spoke when she first began verbally communicating with God.

I thought of our conversation long after it was over. I thought about how innocently yet perfectly, children pray. There are no long flowery words strung together. They just simply talk to God. They give thanks. They say what’s on their mind, sometimes even if an adult wouldn’t approve. They don’t hide what’s in their hearts or minds. They just honestly put it out there with no guile involved. They truly believe that He’s listening. It really doesn’t occur to them that He wouldn’t be. They know they are loved. The Bible tells them so.

Most young children are happy to pray out loud if asked. They aren’t embarrassed. Their prayers are usually simple and to the point and sometimes you can almost feel God smiling as they speak.

But, as we get older and our lives and hearts get more complex, our prayers tend to change. We aren’t as honest. We hide certain parts of ourselves even though He can see them. Nothing is ever hidden from Him. We often keep Him at a distance, more like a far away uncle than the daddy in the room.

Ask us to pray out loud and we totally freeze. I get it. I’ve been in the room when the person praying seems to pray for every headline from the morning news and recites a dozen Bible verses using words that require a thesaurus. We simply don’t know what to say. What we need to remember is that we don’t have to.

If we quiet our minds and listen to our hearts, the Holy Spirit will guide us. God isn’t interested in our large vocabularies or in how many headlines we can remember. He’s interested in our hearts. He’s interested in our worship. He’s interested in our trust and our obedience.

The Bible says, “But Jesus called the children to him and said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.'” Luke 18:16

Jesus knew all about the hearts of children. Their prayers reflect their hearts. Maybe we can try to remember to pray with childlike faith, innocence and wisdom.

A conversation with a friend reminded me. Perhaps you needed reminding too.

Have an awesome day!
Wendy 🙂