Scrambled Starts: Family Prayers for Morning, Bedtime, and Everything In-Between
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About this ebook
Do you long to teach your children to pray? How do you build a prayerful family when everyone is running in different directions?
In Scrambled Starts, Youngman shares honestly from her family's journey as she tried to build prayer into their daily lives. This encouraging book for parents and families includes:
- prayers for mealtime and bedtime
- prayers for specific occasions and ordinary times
- prayers for all ages
- scriptures to memorize
- help for starting a family devotion time
Benefit from Youngman's experiences with her family, and discover how to make prayer the heart of your own family!
Jenny Youngman
Jenny Youngman is a veteran youth worker turned singer/songwriter from Nashville. Her writing credits include the Worship Feast series, The Amazing Bible Race, and The Deep Blue Kids Bible. Jenny is pursuing her God-sized dream with her husband/pastor and their four children. Connect with Jenny and check out her music at jennyyoungman.com.
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Scrambled Starts - Jenny Youngman
INTRODUCTION
Gathered around the Sunday school table, glue sticks and construction-paper crafts strewn about, my teacher would announce, It’s time to pray, class. Would someone like to volunteer?
As all my friends shuffled their papers and hoped to remain unnoticed, I raised my little hand knowing my effort would win me a smile and a welcome affirmation. And it always did.
Dear Jesus,
I would pray, thank you for this day and thank you for my teacher. Forgive us for our sins and help us to be nice. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
Proud of myself, I would leave for worship ready to prove my childhood piety even more by closing my eyes and raising my hands during the hymns and worship songs. In my tradition, leading prayers and exhibiting signs of participation during worship served as outward expressions of committed believers, and I wanted to be one of them!
Somewhere between childhood and the teenage years, my confidence to pray grew even more, but the prayers became more legalistic in nature. At night I would regularly mutter out a quick prayer asking forgiveness while nodding off to sleep just to be sure that I was still good with God.
The If I die before I wake
notion had been so sealed into my understanding of faith that I feared what might happen if I did in fact die before morning came.
Though my young prayers may have had occasionally misguided motives, I realize now that every attempt at prayer was a step toward God. I discovered in my childhood prayers and piety that even though I didn’t really know how to pray and was not always genuine in my approach, I was practicing prayer. I was doing it! Going through the motions at a young age taught me how to pray as I grew up. The practice of prayer taught me the language that I could come back to again and again.
GROWING UP IN PRAYER
Prayer drew me in at a young age with its mystery, wonder, and power. That God Almighty would incline an ear to me seemed magical and wonderful. I have always loved the idea that God listens to me, wants to speak to me, and waits for me to share my heart. Through prayer, faith grows, love for God grows, and our beliefs mature. In time, I began to understand prayer more holistically. I realized that prayer is less a give-and-take exchange with God and more a two-way conversation between the Creator of the universe and God’s beloved child—me.
Prayer became so much more than a holy pass that wiped my sin slate clean or a tool to show off my spirituality or even a rehearsal of my glorified Christmas list. Prayer became my very breath, taking in the Spirit of God and breathing out the anxieties, fears, and pain of the world. I grew to understand prayer as a beautiful exchange between a God who knows what I need and me—God’s beloved creation—who brings forward my needs anyway.
My desire for a deeper prayer life led me to classical writings on prayer, the prayers of the saints, and the practice of silence, solitude, and breath prayers. In seminary, my studies revolved around spiritual disciplines and prayer practices. My prayer journey has led me to teach, write, and lead retreats on prayer practices. The practice of prayer never lets me go; in fact, I often feel a tangible hunger for time spent with God in prayer.
ATTEMPTS AT FAMILY PRAYER
Early in our marriage, my husband, Mark, and I would often read a book of the Bible together and pray about our future and what God had in store for us. We would hold hands and commit our dreams to God, asking for God’s will to be planted in our hearts. We’d share with each other the ways that scripture was soaking into our thoughts and actions. As we moved into local church ministry and began a family, I believed that prayer would be the focus of our home life and that our children would know how and when and why to pray before they even knew how to