ACTS of Prayer

Last night at youth group, the middle school students learned about prayer, specifically praying in public, as they might be asked to do at church or on a retreat or at some big game or gathering. They learned the acronym ACTS for helping them outline the things they should include.

A - Adoration, or praising God

C - Confession, or admitting wrong doing

T - Thanksgiving, or being greatful to God

S - Supplication, or asking God for something

After watching a few prayers from movies (Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving and Cool Runnins) we broke up into groups of two and each group was given a scenario in which they would pray in public. The prayers were wonderful. Some were funny. Some were very sincere and most were both. On group of boys was given the scenario, "praying at a wedding or funeral." We all expected these quirky, off the wall boys to choose funeral and worried at the outcome. They didn't. They chose a wedding. While i will wager maybe no middle school boy has ever been asked to pray at a wedding, in this case, it would have been mistake to pass these boys over. Here is their prayer, honest and sincere...

Dear God, thank you for this great day for the wedding.

I'm sorry our Grandpa couldn't stay awake during the wedding.

Thanks you for the great wedding cake.

Please help the couple to stay together and happy for the rest of their lives.

Amen.