Our Father, which art in heaven, Hallowed by Thy Name.  ~ Matthew 6:9

你 们 祷 告 要 这 样 说 ： 我 们 在 天 上 的 父 ： 愿 人 都 尊 你 的 名 为 圣 。 ~ 馬 太 福 音 6:9

Prayer is talking to God. Have you ever wondered how to pray, or what you should say to God? Jesus’ disciples did. They asked Jesus to teach them, and he gave them a prayer to use as a guide. We call it “The Lord’s Prayer”, and our memory verse today is the first part of it. (Some people call it “The Our Father”. Can you guess why?)

The verse above is in old-fashioned English, where “which art” means “who is”; “Hallowed” means “holy”; “Thy” means “your”. Here is what it sounds like in the International Children’s Bible:

Our Father in heaven, we pray that your name will always be kept holy.

What can we learn about praying from this? First, we can talk to God the way we talk to a father who loves us very much. In the picture above, the boy looks so happy to be with his dad, and his dad looks happy to be with him! When you pray, think of God being happy to spend time with you. 

Look at the picture again. The boy looks like he would do anything his dad asks. When we pray that God’s name will always be kept holy, it means we want everything we do to bring God honour and glory. We want to do the things he wants us to do. We want to make God happy, just like the boy in the picture wants to please his dad.

Our Father, thank you that you love us so much that you want us to come and talk to you. Please help us love you back by doing the things you want us to do. Amen.

Here is a video of some children singing the Lord’s Prayer. You can do the actions and sing along with them!