MONDAY
1. A short psalm repeated in concert.
2. A brief, informal petition by father or mother.
3. The Lord's Prayer, in which all join.
Before attempting even this simple plan, prepare for it by first selecting several suitable psalms. The following should be included: the 1st, 19th, 23d, 24th, 100th, 117th, 121st, and a part of the 103d. You would do well to memorize one of these yourself, so as to be able to lead without reading from the book. Next, think over with some care the things for which you may pray, the aspirations which your children can share with you. Few things are more difficult than this, so to pray that all can make the prayer their own. Let it also be a prayer of love and joy, not a craven begging off from punishments, nor a cowardly plea for protection and provision. We can pray over all these things with gratitude and with confidence toward the God of love. Do not try to preach in your prayers. Many prayers have been ruined by preaching, just as some preaching has been spoiled by praying to the people. Usually four or five sentences will do for the one day. Better a single thought simply expressed than the most brilliant attempt to inform the Almighty on all the events of the world that day.
A prayer in which all can join is always desirable. The Lord's Prayer never wearies us nor grows old. Children enter into it with some new meaning every day; it covers all our great, common, daily needs.
TUESDAY
1. A few favorite memory verses repeated by all (from either the Bible or other literature).
2. Read a very brief passage from the Bible.
3. Prayer, ending with the Lord's Prayer.