Prayer as Story

This past week, the Sardis congregation celebrated Story Sunday. The entire morning was dedicated to making the stories of our faith accessible to our littlest ones. Below is an excerpt from the morning prayer.

Each week, we gather together as a church family to offer a community prayer to God. We can tell God what we are thankful for. We can also tell God what’s making us feel nervous, or anxious, or worried. We can tell God how we feel. That means it’s okay to tell God when we are happy or excited, and when we feel sad, or scared, or mad, or even angry.

You might say we are inviting God to be part of a story: our story! 

For this morning’s prayer, we want to invite everyone to help us tell a story. And we’ll need your help. I’m gonna ask you some questions, and I hope you will feel free to share what comes to mind. And Hilary is also going to help us with pictures. She’s going to draw some of the things we say to help our story come to life. Because guest what, God loves pictures, too!

Would you tell me something you see outside? Grass, trees, birds, bugs, etc.?

Would you tell me how you feel today? Happy, silly, sad, shy, etc.?

Would you tell me something that you are thankful for?

Does anyone have something that’s worrying them?

Would you pray with me?

Dear God,

Once upon a time, well actually, this morning, there were some church buddies who were all sitting together outside.  It was such a beautiful day. They saw all sorts of things you made: sunshine, ducks, birds, Rapunzel, grass, trees, orange leaves, pretzels, and doughnuts (of course!).

Your creation made all these church buddies feel so thankful for what was around them. Some of them in the circle felt happy, joyful, and excited because they were so grateful for friends, stories, music, playing, and snacks (of course!).

The church buddies were also thankful, because they had a place to gather, and tell God about some of the things that were making them feel worried and scared: pandemic and friends dealing with sickness and grief. Also, Mary Allen planted some pumpkin seeds in her garden. She’s really excited for them to grow big and orange, but she wants to make sure they get plenty of sun and water.

When the church buddies spoke their concerns aloud, they felt safe. They realized that they were around people who loved them. And they realized that God was listening to them, telling them it was okay to feel how they felt, and share what they shared. Because God likes to listen to us. God holds us. And God hugs us. And God loves us.

God helps us catch our breath, and move forward. God helps us become aware of people who are willing to help us and support us: people like our parents, and our teachers, and our friends, and our family, and our neighbors, and our church buddies.

God promises to sit next to us, tuck us in, and read the story with us each night. So…we say, “Amen,” which means “true,” because we’ll come back together, God and church buddies, to pray again next week.