Prayer is a serious subject, and a serious need in our lives. But that doesn’t mean it can’t be fun. You can even use games to help guide your prayer life.
I had never thought of games as things that could help me pray until just recently, when I saw a set of large wooden dice in a gift shop—at a monastery, in fact. Each two-and-a-half-inch side of the die was engraved with a short but meaningful prayer. There were three kinds of dice to choose from: Everyday Prayers, Bedtime Prayers, and Mealtime Prayers (one of the bedtime prayers, for example, is “God, hold me and bless me, grant me rest. When You are with me, I sleep the best. Amen”). I bought them and have already started using them with my grandchildren, who love the idea of throwing a die to choose a prayer. It’s unusual, I’ll admit, and it’s probably not for everyone, but using games to remind you to pray may open your prayer life in unexpected ways.
For me, those dice opened up new possibilities of prayer—and not only ideas for praying with children. For example, I’ve used a simple minute sand-timer from a game box to guide my prayer times, turning segments of praise/confession/thanksgiving/petition/praise into “lightning rounds” of focused prayer. I’ve also adapted a spinner by giving each color or number on the spinner a corresponding prayer or person or need for which to pray. I can even envision making a game of solitaire a way to pray, perhaps by praying for a different person each time you turn over a face card or assigning a theme to each card (e.g., King=praise God, Queen=pray for a woman or girl, Jack=pray for a man or boy, red cards=give thanks, black cards=pray for your needs).
What about you? Have you ever thought of “playing at prayer?” Please comment and share any ideas.
