Creative Prayer

God created the world. God created life as we know it out of nothing. God is creative. God imaginative. God is unique. God is not boring. God made us in His image. Therefore, we were made to be creative, imaginative, unique, and not boring. Our time with God in prayer is an extension of who we are, so prayer should include all the adjectives just mentioned as well. It was never meant to be rigid, stale, boring, or formula-driven. 

Kids need to know – and adults for that matter – that God is ok with us bringing these adjectives into our prayer time. In fact, He desires it. He doesn’t want just routine that makes us go through the motions; He wants a living, exciting relationship with us. As trainers, we need to foster that in our children and youth.

Recently in one of our Kids Prayer meetings we discussed all the different ways that we could worship God. Answers given were things like singing, shouting, crying, dancing, instrumentals, poetry, stories, drawings, on and on. The previous week we demonstrated Psalms 150, with only our bodies. It was quite interesting seeing our adult teachers praising on the psaltry, harps, and stringed instruments and organs! But it was fun, and it was different. And it was to God.

We then had the kids do a time of creative worship where the kids could draw or write their worship to God. They were given paper, pens, a whiteboard, colors, and anything in the room they wanted to use to show their worship. They could dance, they could sing if they wanted, or make up a song. They just needed to make whatever they did into worship. These types of prayers and worship are just a valid as the routine ones we are used to when they come from the heart. One of the boys drew this picture in this posting. He said he knew it didn’t look like much but then he explained: He thanked God for the trees which gives us oxygen to breathe, the animals which give us food to eat, and the sky/clouds which shield us from the sun’s harmful rays. 

Quite the expression of worship I’d say! Creative. Imaginative. Unique. Interesting. From the heart. And you thought it was just a kid’s drawing! I love the way kids’ minds work. If I do… imagine how much more God does. And God told us that He could do “exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or THINK.” Maybe we need to use our creative imagination a little bit more!

Colleen Clabaugh
WNOP Kids & Youth Prayer Coordinator