Prayer (3): "I Can Pray With my Family"

This lesson is based on the nursery manual "Behold Your Little Ones". Click the link to view the original lesson, "I can Pray with My Family" from LDS.org.

For other Family Home Evening lessons, search our Family Home Evening Index.

Prayer:

Scripture: 3 Nephi 18:21 "Pray in your families unto the Father, always in my name, that your wives and your children may be blessed." After reading this scripture, I explained that Heavenly Father wants us to pray as a family. We grow closer to Heavenly Father as a family and it invites His spirit into our home.

Song: "Family Prayer" (Children's Songbook Pg.189) Click here to sing along. We did the actions below from the manual while we sang the song.

Let us gather in a circle (walk around in a circle)

And kneel in family prayer (stop walking and kneel; 

have the children repeat "family prayer" after you)

To thank our Heavenly Father (fold arms)

For the blessings we all share

Picture: I showed Easton the picture below from the manual of a family praying together. "Have the children identify the different members of the family, and point out that they are kneeling and that their arms are folded, their heads are bowed, and their eyes are close. Tell them that this family is having family prayer. Invite the children to say the words "family prayer". Invite them to kneel, fold their arms, and bow their heads. Explain that when we have family prayer, we talk to Heavenly Father. We thank Him for our blessings, and we ask Him to help and bless our family."

Finger Puppet Story: We colored the finger puppets below, cut them out and taped them to go around our fingers. We used the finger puppets to tell the story of the boy, Peter, and how his family prayed together for his eye to get better: "Here is a family. This is the father, and this is the mother. Here are the sister and brother. This is Peter, the little brother (point to the puppet of the baby). Onee day Peter was playing and hurt his eye (invite the children to cover their eye with their hand.) Father and Mother took him to see the doctor (take the puppet off the finger and lay it on the floor). Peter's family knelt in family prayer (invite the children to kneel). They asked Heavenly Father to bless Peter. Heavenly Father heard their prayer. He helped Peter get better (put the puppet back on the finger). Then PEter and his family had family prayer again to thank Heavenly Father for blessing Peter."

Personal Experience: I always like to include personal stories in FHE if applicable. There was a time Easton had a bad sliver in his foot and was so nervous about getting it out. We prayed together to get the sliver out quickly and Heavenly Father answered our prayer. I remind Easton of this story often to remind him that Heavenly Father helps us and listens to our prayers. 

Testimony:


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Prayer (1): "I Can Pray to Heavenly Father"
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