Try This! Prayer Beads for Lent

At our Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper, we made prayer beads to use during Lent. Having a string of beads can be a wonderful way to encourage prayer and can help you grow closer to God in this holy season.

The prayer beads we made have a stationary bead on one end, called the Lord’s Prayer bead. This bead can be a reminder to start your day with the Lord’s Prayer. Our bead chain includes ten movable beads that can be pulled and will stay in place so that you can keep track of anything that you are doing (or not doing!) this Lent. Carry the beads in your pocket and let them remind you throughout the day of your desire to pray, and of God’s desire to be closer to you. At the end of each day, move all the beads away from the Lord’s Prayer bead and let the next day be a new beginning!

Here are some ways that you can use your beads. Pick and choose from these ideas, and find other ways of praying with your beads on your own. (Leave a comment with your ideas below!)

• Use the beads to keep track of your prayers during the day. Each time you find your beads in your pocket, take them out, move a bead, and say a prayer.  You may like to make a commitment to pray ten times each day. Move a bead each time that you pray. 
• Choose one specific person or thing to prayer for during the day. Move a bead each time that you pray for that person or thing. Watch how your prayers change over the course of the day.
• Use the beads to keep track of good deeds that you do in Lent. When you are kind to a friend or family member, when you help a stranger, when you share something with someone in need, move a bead and pray that God will bless the other person and will continue to help you to be a blessing to others.
• Use the beads to keep track of sacrifices you are making in Lent. For example, if you are giving up gum, move one bead every time you reach for or wish you had a piece of gum, and say a prayer asking God to be your desire and your strength.
• Use the beads to keep track of any Lenten discipline that you are taking on – such as reading the Bible, or being kind to a sibling. Move a bead each time you do the activity. Pray that God will give you inspiration and strength to do all that you hope to do this Lent.
• Assign specific prayers, types of prayers, or people you want to pray for to the beads and say your prayers in a row, like a rosary. Check the Book of Common Prayer for prayer ideas.
• Share a smaller string of beads with your young child, and make a plan with him or her to pray together several times each day. Let the child move a bead each time you pray together. 

May God bless you and may you be a blessing to others this Lent!

Children in atrium will have the chance to make prayer beads as a work this Sunday. If you would like to make a bead chain at home, easy to follow directions for sacrifice beads can be found at The Little Ways. I have adapted these slightly, as I have described and pictured above. Photos from Shrove Tuesday will be coming soon!


****Two wonderful blogging friends of mine, Sheila at Explore and Express, and Storyteller at Wonderful in an Easter kind of Way are collecting links with ideas for preparing for Easter. I am listing this post in their Lenten Link-Up Party. Click here to see all of the great posts they have collected!  

The Lord's Prayer, Part Two!

I received a great question on Facebook in response to my last post on The Lord's Prayer!   Toni wanted to know what work the children did when they were younger to prepare them for this one. I thought I would respond to her question on the blog for you to hear as well!

We have many works that are indirect preparation for understanding the Lord's Prayer. For example, starting at age 3 we spend a lot of time meditating on the kingdom parables.  What is the kingdom like? It's like a tiny mustard seed that grows and grows, and is a shelter for the birds.  It's like a precious pearl that the merchant sold everything to have, and so on. So when we look at "your kingdom come" the children already know a lot about the kingdom and they desire it! 

Also in the 3-6 year old atrium the children have come to know the Good Shepherd parable.  While working on the Lord's Prayer, I can ask "Does anything here remind you of the Good Shepherd?"  The children themselves are able to lift up the love and care of a Father as being like the Good Shepherd, and "daily bread" as being everything the sheep need to live, even the Good Shepherd himself given in the bread and wine. 

When we talk about sin and forgiveness in the Lord's Prayer, the children can remember their work at Level Two with the True Vine parable.  They understand that sin is something that blocks the sap which runs through the vine to the branches, and that forgiveness opens us up to God again. 

There are other amazing connections the children make, but you get the picture! Thanks for the great question Toni!

The Lord's Prayer

Today in the True Vine Atrium (for first, second, and third graders) we meditated upon the Lord's Prayer. We used a material that breaks the prayer down line by line, so that the children can manipulate it like a puzzle. Walking through the Lord's Prayer with the children reminded me once again that the works we do in the atrium draw children into the most essential dimensions of the Christian faith.  The children were able to connect with Jesus' prayer in a significant way because of all the works they have encountered before.  It is truly amazing!

Children spent some time in atrium decorating their own copy of the prayer to take home. If you have a first, second or third grader, take a moment to pray this prayer with him or her during the week! If your child was absent today, you can find the Lord's Prayer as we use it in Church in the Book of Common Prayer on pg. 364 or you can look it up in the Bible (Matthew 6:9-13 and Luke 11:1-4). Help your child to hang the prayer up, and encourage him or her to pray it silently if so moved. Try praying the Lord's Prayer together before you head out in the morning or last thing before your child goes to bed.  It is also a wonderful prayer to offer when you are worried about someone or something, as the children suggested in our conversation today. Enjoy the beauty of the Lord's Prayer yourself this week!