Wailing Wall

The Wailing Wall (often referenced also as the area of the Gate of Mercy) is a remnant of an ancient wall that surrounded the Jewish Temple’s courtyard in Old Jerusalem, and is one of the most sacred places in Judaism. It has been s a site for Jewish prayers and pilgrimages for centuries. Many of those who come to pray at the walls write prayers on slips of paper and press them into the cracks. More than one millions prayers are pressed into these cracks each year.

A great way to use this in KidsPrayer is to create a “wailing wall” and have the kids write their own prayer requests. The wall can be as simple as a piece of corkboard that prayer requests are tacked to, or you can make a wall out of foam with “cracks” melted into it. If you have time and space, you can create a whole wall in a classroom or prayer area for this purpose.

Some children may feel apprehensive about leaving prayer requests on the wall that are sensitive in nature. You can explain to them that any such prayer requests should be written on the inside of a slip of paper, and then folded over so no one can see the inside. On the outside of the request, have the children write what type of prayer request it is, whether it’s for healing, salvation, or other. As the children tack or stuff their request on/in the wall, go over scriptures that they can pray over their request to get them used to praying biblical prayers.

Below are some photos from a kids prayer class that did this object lesson.