The Sound of Forehands Clapping

Now, I noticed this thing about how my kids pray a while ago. My kids prayers always begin with the same word: Jesus. Mine, including the ones in front of them almost never begin with “Jesus”. I usually begin with “Heavenly Father” or “Lord” or “God”. Where did they learn this I’ve wondered. I mean, do they just relate to Jesus more because there are pictures of Him in there books, but none of the Father? Did they learn this from Sunday school teachers? I just found it curious.

I came across an answer from John Piper to the question Does it matter which Person of the Trinity we pray to? Piper explains that the normal pattern of the NT (including Jesus’ own teaching) is to pray to the Father in the name of the Son by the power of the Spirit.

You can watch, listen to or read his answer here.

Hadn’t given it to much thought before. While my children aren’t sinning by directing their prayers to Jesus (of course!) I do think it may show some blind spots in their understanding of the Gospel. I want to make sure they are getting that Jesus loved us so so SO much that He came and died for us so that His Father would become our Father!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 20th, 2009 at 10:31 am and is filed under Parenting, Theology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.