Photo Prayer Box

Problem #1: The kids have memorized their prayers and sometimes spout them out so fast that you can't understand a single word.
Problem #2: Your fridge is still cluttered with everyone's photo Christmas cards, but you don't want to throw them away.

Solution:  Create a "Photo Prayer Box."  First, either re-purpose or purchase a recipe file box.  Then, cut all of your photo Christmas cards down to fit into the individual file folders.  Put one picture in each folder.  If you want to add in a family who didn't send you a Christmas card (how could they!?), just print off a picture from Facebook or have them email you one.

Every night, one child can pick a folder out, and everyone prays for that family.  Before your prayers, you can mention to your children specific requests from that family that you know of, i.e. "Uncle Ben is getting married in April, so let's pray that Jesus blesses his marriage."  Your children may not always understand the requests, but it's still good practice to pray specifically.  My 21 mo. old usually says, "Dear Jesus, thank you for ______," and he is getting the idea that it's good to pray for our friends and family.  We also let the children take turns picking a picture.  They love it and look forward to it every night!

       Extra tip: If you want to be sure that each family gets prayed for equally, turn one of your folders upside-down and put the pictures you have picked behind that folder.  Then, only pick pictures from the front section.