The power tool of prayer can be summed up in two principles:  recurrent asking and confident waiting.  You should always encourage your children to pray often about any and all requests.  God is very patient; He will not be worn out by their asking.     It is not a faithless act for your children to be relentless with their asking.  God loves the action of their persistent prayers; he never tires of their requests.    In reality it says a lot about their faith and dependence in Him, even if they try and wear Him out.   Through time, God will change their minds from what they want to what they need, and at that point their prayers will be immediately answered.   Jesus confirmed this truth about prayer when He shared it with the disciples in the Sermon on the Mount.   "Ask and it shall be given unto you, seek and you shall find, knock and the door shall be opened."  (Matthew 7:7)

Teachable Moment

Needless to say, as parents we do not always have the patience of God when listening to our children's endless requests.   Even though we may have to quiet them from time to time, we should never teach them that God wants to do the same.  He loves their requests.   There are two teachable moments that can be experienced in this lesson on prayer.   Gather your family at the front door, and pretend that there is someone home you want to see.  Have each of them knock on the door.   When they make that first single knock, tell them to stop.   Hopefully, they will say, why?  Usually when they knock on a friend's door, it takes a few wraps, not just one.   That is the point according to Matthew 7:7-11.   God wants them to make many knocks on the prayer door.

Another teachable moment you may try in demonstrating this lesson on asking and waiting can take place in the kitchen.   Fix your children a plate full of cookies and call them to the kitchen counter to taste them.   But before they dive in, replace the plate of cookies with a plate full of rocks.  Hopefully, they will protest.   Then explain, that God in listening to their requests will never respond with anything accept what is good for them.  Remember, God never gives us a stone when we ask for a loaf of bread.

There are no "rock" answers with God.

Word of God

Matthew 7:7-11 “Ask and it shall be given unto you, seek and you shall find, knock and the door shall be opened.    For everyone who ask receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.  Which of you, if his son asks for bread will you give him a stone?   Or is he asks for a fish, will you give him a snake?  If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him!"

James 5:16-18  " The prayer of a righteous man is powerful, and effective.  Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain; and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months.  And he prayed again, and the sky poured rain, and the earth

produced its fruit."