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The power of prayer
I work at a Christian early childhood centre in Rotorua. Being able to share about Jesus with the children is a wonderful blessing.
Through songs, stories and discussions with the children, we hope to be able to influence their young lives. For those children who don’t come from Christian homes, our hope is to show them that God is awesome, that he loves them and that he wants us to be caring towards others.
My work at the centre is with the two-year-olds. Recently, a little girl began using some swear words in an angry tone, directing her words at other children. At first, we weren’t sure of the best way to deal with this. We started by ignoring her behaviour in the hope that she would stop swearing, but she kept it up. This led to a complaint from a parent who was embarrassed when her own two-year-old started using these same words.
This complaint led me to search for a better solution. Over morning tea, one of the teachers from our three to five-year-old area said that when this happened in the older children’s playground, the teacher would stoop down to the child’s level, tell them it was not acceptable to speak like that, and would then pray with the child, asking God to help them speak more kindly.
My initial reaction was, ‘I think they’re too young to understand.’ But when there was another incident, I felt an urgency to go and pray with the little girl. I engaged with her eye to eye and gently told her that it made God very sad when she used those words. I told her, ‘I am going to pray to God and ask him to help you to remember not to say those words to your friends.’
As I prayed, the girl’s body relaxed and her facial expression softened. When the prayer was over, I gave her a big hug and left it at that. And we have not heard that language again.
Since that day, that little girl has joined in our daily prayer before lunch. We begin by saying ‘karakia tātou’ (let us pray) and then ‘whakapiri ō ringaringa’ (praying hands together). Each day we hear her joining in. If we open our eyes, we see her praying hands together and the same softness in her expression that I witnessed when I first prayed with her.
I see God shining through this child, and it is a reminder for me that praying individually with a child of any age is a powerful experience—one that God wants us to continue.
The Bible passage that speaks of this to me is Luke 18:15–16, ‘People were bringing babies to Jesus to have him touch them. When the disciples saw this, they rebuked them. But Jesus called the children to him saying, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” ’
‘Do not hinder them,’ said Jesus. I think that if I had not prayed that day with this child, I would have hindered her opportunity to meet with Jesus. God blessed me that day with wisdom that I intend to put into practice whenever the opportunity arises in the future.
by Margaret Abbott (c) 'War Cry' magazine, 25 July 2015, pp9.
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