Leven Valley School

This morning Sarah and I went down to Leven Valley School for the assembly.  After singing So Many Ways to Praise the Lord I asked the children how you would tell someone that you loved them.  I got a number of really good answers like talking to them, giving a gift, hugging them, email and text, write to them, send a card etc.  I then asked how we tell God that we love him - by praying to him came the answer.  I then went on to talk a bit about prayer and how I was taught to pray when I was younger, and how some people say that you only pray in church.  But I said that you can pray in loads of different ways like in your bedroom, in church, on a mountain side in fact anywhere.  I told the story of the two men that Jesus talked about that prayed in the temple one was a Pharisee the other a tax collector.  The Pharisee used big words and mocked the tax collector which wasn't and isn't the right thing to do.  I also said that Jesus' disciples asked him how they should pray and out of that came the Lord's Prayer.  I explained to the children that I was going to show them a way to pray using - and I pulled out a tea spoon.  This brought a laugh but I asked them if they knew what the shortened letters were for a teaspoon in a recipe - tsp.  So using the letters t - we say thank you to God for something and praise him, s - to say sorry for the things we have done that are wrong and p - to ask him please for things like helping us in a test, or pray for someone who is ill.  We then sang I Love You and I closed with a tsp prayer followed by the Lord's Prayer.