Deepen Your Prayer This Lent

In my house we’ve recently started a new practice with the whole family. Each month we all share one way in which we are learning to pray. For years I’ve struggled to find ways that everyone in the family could share in one another’s prayer life. We often pray together as a family, but I wanted to invite my kids to take a personal step in prayer and to model for them what a personal prayer life looks like. My 6-year-old is going to pray differently than I do, but that doesn’t mean we can’t learn from one another as we explore patterns of prayer as a family. 

We have been checking in with each other every week before we go to church to hear how things are going with our prayer goals. This has opened a new window for me into the spiritual lives of my children, and it has helped to keep me accountable in developing my own walk with God.

Prayer is an essential element of Lent. Every year when Lent rolls around, I discover I have let my prayer life fade more than I would like. This is one of the reasons I love Lent. It is an annual reminder that my relationship with God is something precious and that I need to be intentional about creating space for it to flourish.

By taking time to intentionally do something new as I pray, I find I am challenged to learn more about prayer and how others pray. Some years during Lent I have returned to an old habit that had fallen away, only to discover that I have a new appreciation for it. Other years I have felt called to learn about a new pattern of prayer, which has opened my heart to God in ways I had never experienced before. 

Speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord. (Ephesians 5:19)