Praying in Color...Prayer Journals for my Kids

 I just finished reading this wonderful book entitled, Praying in Color, by Sybil Macbeth.

I am a doodler... and really, when you think about it, aren't most kids doodlers?  Doodling comes naturally to us.  It's as we grow up that we discard the practice because we consider it somehow beneath us.  We're too grown up to doodle... or are we?

Do you ever have a hard time praying?  You don't know the words to say?  How do I pray for this person, Lord?  Well, the good thing is that the Lord knows exactly how we should pray for that person.

In Romans 8:26, it says,  "Also, the Spirit helps us with our weakness. We do not know how to pray as we should.  But the Spirit Himself speaks to God for us, even begs God for us with deep feelings that words cannot explain."  (New Century Version)

So, I found this wonderful book by Sybil Macbeth.  She doodles her prayers.  I plan to begin doodling my prayers, too, and share that with my Sunday School kids.

Here's a video of Sybil explaining how she began to pray in this way:

Praying in Color-Sybil Macbeth

For Christmas this year, I'm making Prayer Journals for my kids in Sunday School.  So, I plan to show them how to doodle their prayers and pray in color.  Inside the book, I'll put pages with Scripture verses at the top that they can include in their doodles.

I plan to share with them this acronym:   ACTS  

A-Adoration
C- Confession
T- Thanksgiving
S-Supplication

What a beautiful picture we could make using all of these components.  I can begin my page with pictures of God and my adoration of Him... then confess through a sad face that I am sad because I sin... then give THANKS for all the many blessings God has given me... and then, draw pictures that show my requests on behalf of others and myself.

I made this doodle, using all of the components of ACTS, but I want to tell the kids that not all of their prayers have to use all of those components each and every time.

I used the usual symbols for Father, Son and Holy Spirit to begin my adoration of God.  Then, worked in the Scripture verse we're studying, John 3:16.  To the left side, you see a picture of me sad, kneeling in prayer, because I'm sad that I sin and make God unhappy.  Then, in the middle you see my thanksgiving for God's many blessings in my life.  Below, I drew my prayer requests as flowers and the blue marks you see are my prayers watering those flowers, as God works in the lives of those for whom I prayed.

I'm placing these essentially blank sheets of paper in the prayer journals I've made for the kids.
I put a "word cloud" on the outside of each folder, with each kid's name and attributes that I feel are part of being a Christian.  Hopefully, each time they open their prayer journal, they'll be encouraged to strive toward being more like those attributes.

I wish I could share a pdf file that you could use to make your own Sunday School kids prayer journals, but I made these on Print Shop and I don't think you would be able to manipulate the pdf to change the names for your kids.  But, here are the components I made:

 

 

With side labels on their prayer journals:

With these, I just cut them out of card stock and slide the label in the clear plastic on the side of the notebook so that they can see their names when they have their prayer journals on their shelf.

I pray that these prayer journals and the technique of praying in color with doodles will be a blessing to my Sunday School kids, and that through this, they will become closer to God.