Chicago Leaders Serve National "Children's Day"

10 Ways to Pray on “Children’s Day”


• National Prayer Leader Offers Special Ideas
Batavia, Ill., June 5, 2009 (The Religion Wire™) —




America’s church played a vital role in the birth of both Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. So it should be no surprise that the revival of “Children’s Day” on the second Sunday in June (this year June 14, 2009) also embraces a spiritual component.

The website, www.nationalchildrensday.us, and its mirror www.childrensday.us, are offering 10 ways to pray on “Children’s Day” as complied by the Rev. Phil
Miglioratti, national facilitator of city and community ministries for Mission America. He also leads the National Pastors’ Prayer Network and writes a prayer column for Pray Magazine.

“10 Ways to Pray on Children’s Day”
1. Sit on your porch or patio and pray for children in your neighborhood.
2. Take your family (including children!) or a few friends and pray at a nearby school.

• At the flagpole
• Around the perimeter
• In each parking slot (for the faculty, administration, called-in parents...)

3. Picnic in the park ... and pray for:

• Children and parents in the playground
• Teens on the field or the courts
• Gangs that may be in your community

4. Alert your pastor and ask that a special prayer for children take place on Children's Day (invite parents to bring their children to the front for a prayer of blessing).
5. Hand deliver "I/We prayed for your kids" cards (homemade is fine) to family acquaintances.
6. Call a grandchild, niece, or nephew, and ask if you can pray for them over the phone.
7. Secure a yearbook from a nearby school and pray for several of the students each day for the next month (or longer).
8. Become a secret chaplain of a child's sport team - Use the team roster as a daily prayer list.
9. As you peruse the daily newspaper, stop each time a child is included in a story and pray.
10....and when you pray, ask the Lord to bless them, body (health), soul (hope) and spirit (heaven).

Children’s Day observations in the United States date from the 1860s and earlier.

The Methodist Episcopal Church at the Methodist Conference of 1868 recommended
that the second Sunday in June be observed annually as Children’s Day. The
General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in 1883 designated the “the second
Sabbath in June as Children’s Day.”

The Children’s Day website offers help and challenges parents, individuals,
churches/houses of worship, schools/places of education, government/community and
businesses to sign commitment cards directed at affirming America’s children. They
pledge to “commit myself(ourself), in the coming year, to love, cherish, nurture
(physical, mental, emotional, & spiritual needs), and affirm...” They can also make a
commitment beyond America to the world’s children.

In 2007 and 2008, Illinois proclaimed the second Sunday in June as Children’s
Day. Several Illinois towns also issued proclamations.

Currently Chase’s Calendar of Events cites Children’s Sunday and notes that The
Commonwealth of Massachusetts issues an annual proclamation for the second
Sunday in June.

Numerous churches and denominations, including the African Methodist Episcopal
Church, African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church and the Church of the Nazarene, now
observe the second Sunday in June as Children’s Day.

Contact: John Ross
(630) 879-8828 (office)
(630) 879-2583 (home)
http://www.nationalchildrensday.us/

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