In the work of raising children, I've always thought it best to take all of the help I can get. I spend an awful lot of time down on my knees imploring the Lord to sanctify my family and recently my prayers became one step closer to being answered through a lovely little book written by Grace Mazza Urbanski, the Director of Children's Ministry for the Apostleship of Prayer.
In Pray with Me, Seven Simple Ways to Pray with Your Children, Grace reveals meaningful ways to introduce prayer to the children in your charge. Through humorous and touching anecdotes along with specific suggestions she shows how your family can move one step closer to heaven each day by incorporating different forms of prayer into your daily routine. I find having several choices to be very appealing because some might work better than others at different stages of my children's lives.
It didn't take me long to read through Grace's inspiring book and when I was through, I felt certain that my family and I could easily work some new prayer routines into our daily lives. I was most impressed with the chapter on silence because silent prayer, and silence in general, is certainly something that is lacking in my life. Wouldn't the Lord be surprised to find that the Bender household is suddenly communicating with less commotion?
I found the final chapter, Praying with the Apostleship of Prayer, to be the most inspiring. In this chapter, Grace shares a story about Sophia, a three-year-old girl who sacrificed her juice as a prayer for her grandfather who had surgery. Grace poignantly points out that "Neither Sophia nor I was present at Jesus' crucifixion, but her sacrifice of juice for her grandpa pulls us back in time. No matter how microscopic the scale might be, when I watch Sophia walk away from the juice box queue, I see Jesus offering his life for me."
Pray with Me is a beautiful book, from the cover to the very last page, and when you read it you will be inspired and encouraged to work at nurturing a close and prayerful relationship between your children and God. Pray with Me can be purchased at Ave Maria Press.