This week we are pleased to have a guest blogger! Jody Capehart is an author, educator, speaker and wonderful friend of CEF. We always look forward to her visits to teach classes here at CMI each semester. Jody's book, Cherishing and Challenging Your Children is a classic of instruction and motivation for children's workers. We love Jody and appreciate the time she gives to help us become better teachers. The following article is from Jody's Web site, www.capehartconnection.com, and is used by permission. This idea about "Prayer Trees" could be used in the class, Teaching Children to Pray in TCE Level 1 or in Devotional Life 1 in TCE Level 2.
Using Prayer Trees
We all want our children to have a deeper prayer life. We encourage them to pray. At home, we may notice that our children’s prayers may start becoming more rote. In the classroom, we notice that whoever leads off with the first prayer request, everyone else tends to follow. For example, if the first child prays for a "hurt knee", suddenly every child has a 'hurt something'. If the first child prays for Grandma, the other children tend to pray for their Grandmas. So how do we deepen their prayer walk and help stretch in their walk?
This is a tool that I have found to be very helpful over the years. It begins to move their prayer life to a deeper level and helps you to bond with the students over time. The purpose of this is two-fold:
1. To have a tangible reminder of how God is working in our lives - to see the answered prayers.
2. To walk with children through the journey of praise when God says "yes", grieve with them when God says "no" and help them to learn patience when God says, "wait". Each one provides an invaluable training with the children in their spiritual journey.
How to Make It:
1. Put the outline of a tree on a bulletin board in your classroom, or if at home: by the kitchen table, your child’s table, or some easy to reach place.
2. When you pray, post major prayer requests on a tree that you have cut out of paper. For each month, select a new shape, fruit, or leaf to put on the tree. Cut out shapes or items for your tree that change each month.
For example:
September: apples
October: pumpkins
November: fall leaves
December: Christmas lights
January: snowflakes
February: hearts
March: shamrocks
April: lilies
May: apple blossoms
They don’t have to be authentic, botanical items. They can be a symbol to represent the holiday or month.
How to Use It:
Either you or each child writes a short prayer request and puts it on the tree. Each time you use the Prayer Tree; you look at the tree and take an item you have prayed for. When the request has been answered, the item moves from the top of the tree to the bottom of the tree, to look like it is lying on the ground.
As the year advances, the top of the tree, as well as the ground under it, becomes a kaleidoscope of prayer requests. Those on top are still unanswered and thus a visible reminder to keep on praying. Those on the bottom serve as a growing reminder of the many prayers God has answered. At the end of each year, gather up all the answered prayers, put him or her in a baggie and send them home with each respective student or at home, place them in your child’s memory box.
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