GCD Short - The Spiritual Realm and Your Kids - Bedtime Prayers
I recently wrote an article about the spiritual realm and your kids in regards to meal times, in particular I focused on praying with your infant at meal times, even if they are not yet eating with you. Another important time to pray with your child is at bedtime, and again this can and should start with your infant.
Bedtime can potentially be an anxiety inducing time for your child. My wife and I had our newborn children in our bedroom for maybe the first couple of nights when we brought them home, but we quickly moved them to a separate room. I know that there are some parents who like to keep their infants in their own bedroom for a longer time. I don't understand why that is or how bedtimes work when one does that, but I don't think there is an issue with this practice. One can argue that keeping the child in the master bedroom reduces their anxiety and helps the child to better adapt to being outside the womb, but my view is that, sooner or later, that child has to get in their own space to sleep, and if you wait until you can explain this to them so they can understand, you will have a child in your bedroom until they are five.
No thanks; not for me. My wife and I need our private space.
So going on the basis that your child is quickly in a room separate from yours, the lack of your nearby presence and the darkness can make them feel ill at ease. This is partly why I think it is a good practice to pray with, or over or for your infant when you put them to bed. Just like with the meal time prayer, they will sense what is happening even before they can talk and when they do start to talk, you can begin to transition them to pray with you and eventually for themselves very easily. This is made even easier if you use another rhyming prayer with a meter that is easy for them to learn and say. I will share one with you again at the end of this article, but I can only think of one right now. As with praying at meal time, you should be praying out loud, and if they are already asleep in your arms, you can just whisper it.
It is my belief that being prayed over, whether as a child or as an adult, can bring peace on someone who is anxious or otherwise lacking peace. To do so before going to sleep is a good way to try to calm down before laying down. Your child can put this into practice as they get a little older and you can teach them how to calm themselves through prayer, helping them to understand that they have a relationship with God and that they can go to Him at anytime and in any place. Your child can unburden themselves of the problems of the day before they go to sleep, just like adults can.
There is also an aspect of spiritual protection included in this as well, much like I mentioned about praying over your meal. You are inviting God into the 'safety' of your bedroom and asking Him to be a presence with you and protect you while you sleep. Because you will begin to do this with your infant, you can introduce them to that type of peace and protection right away.
There may be some that will be thinking that this all seems very namby-pamby religious gobbledy gook, but I assure you that there is a very real spiritual realm out there and we ignore it at our own peril. As time goes on, I will be able to reveal more of my own understanding about the spiritual realm, but there is a lot to cover from several different angles and a foundation needs to be carefully laid.
What I will say is this; children are especially sensitive to the spiritual realm. They have not yet learned to ignore and shut down what they are feeling and sensing. To them it is very real and it can be very scary. The monster in the closet or under the bed, or even the imaginary friend may very well be real, just not in the physical realm. And there may not really be a reason to be afraid of what they are seeing, but your child probably can't figure out what is going on, so they become afraid. That may have to be the next GCD Short, how to deal with the things that your kids are seeing at night or even during the day. We tell them that there is nothing there because we can't see anything, that's because this is what we have been taught. My opinion is that we should be teaching our kids to be aware of, but not afraid of the spiritual realm around them in order to better prepare them to be able to interact with God and the messengers that He may send to them throughout their lives, or even just the stirrings and feelings inside.
One other thing that I will say; folding hands, closing eyes, kneeling and whatever other posture one takes while praying are not important. I realized that the reason that adults close our eyes and fold our hands to pray is because this is how we were taught to pray, but many of us were taught this when we were kids. Folding the hands and closing the eyes are ways to keep the child from fidgeting and getting easily distracted, we just tend to carry on with this when we are older. There is nothing wrong with these things, and they can be used to assume a posture of reverence when we pray, but there is no Scripture that sets these things as necessary to send your petitions to God.
As promised, following is one example of a bedtime prayer that I prayed in my own childhood. I have not yet remembered any others, so I only have one to share with you, but I imagine that you could find other good ones pretty easily if this one doesn't suit you.
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