One Child – One Week – Prayer

 
Prayer is powerful, and each community needs to have someone praying for the young people in their church.

It is important to differentiate between prayer for the young peoples ministry, and prayer for the specific young people. I have found that often the former is much more widely prayed for than the latter. This little card is an easy way to ask specific adults to pray. In the example I have not put the child’s full name, it is designed to be filled as much as is needed and nothing more, the child’s name could be just a letter. Print the cards any size you wish, the back of the cards is a summery of the 8 steps if you wish to print it.

Those who receive a card are asked to use it to pray for a child for just one week, using the following 8 points as a guide. At the end of the week, if appropriate, the child can be informed that somebody from church was praying for them this week. The graphic to one side can be printed and placed on the noticeboard – for the prayer cards and the graphic please click on the images and a larger quality image will load.
 

Start your prayer time by putting aside your issues, both those from today and from your own childhood. Ask God to help you pray unbiased for this child and their needs. Thank God for bringing this child’s needs to you.

Be specific about the child you are praying for. Bring the child to mind if you know them, or use whatever information the card gives. Lift this individual to God as his child and his servant in his kingdom.

Be age specific. Is this an exam year, is there anything in the local news that may effect them, etc. Below is a simple 4 word description of areas that may generate issues by age group, this is very general but may be useful as a starting place for some.
 

0-1 years
Feeding, Sleeping, Movement, Communication
1-2 years
Independence, Language, Instructions, Self Awareness
2-3 years
Cooperation, Separation anxiety, Defiance, Inter-dependence
3-5 years
Friendships, Exploration, Personality, Pre School
6-8 years
School, Acceptance, Awareness of future, Independent goals
9-11 years
Relationships, Responsibility, Puberty, Peer pressure
12-14 years
Body image, Academic results, Stress, Complex thought

 
Siblings deeply shape a child’s everyday life. Consider praying for issues surrounding fairness and sibling rivalry, the process of sharing, and the strength to support each other. For single children pray for issues surrounding friendships, autonomy, and demanding attention.

Pray for the parents. Pray for their lead in discovering God, their relationships, and their ability to provide for their children. Consider that for a child provision of love is arguably the most important.

Pray for their contact with church. the group they are part of – it’s group dynamic and the leaders who serve. Pray for the groups needs and how they may influence the child.

Pray for their strengths and passions Praise God for their gifting and ask him to open opportunities to use that gifting in the child’s life. Pray that they can receive the encouragement and necessary tools to develop their gifting.

Pray for the child’s weaknesses and struggles. Pray that God will be with them in the dark moments they may encounter. Pray for strength, reassurance and confidence to face what may be troubling them and peace for the end of their journey through the present trials they face.