8 Prayers to Pray with Little Ones

The habit of prayer is something that I’ve been striving to better cultivate in my own life and that I wanted to invite Graham into as well. I value the way that prayer invites us to a place of gratitude and how it recenters us as we request that God work in our hearts and lives to make us more like Him. The prayers gathered here are rooted in these two particular aspects because I think they’re a solid starting foundation for introducing children to prayer.

One of the greatest obstacles for me about instilling rhythms of prayer in my own life has been simply remembering to do it. Meal times and bedtimes and mornings, tend toward a sort of tempered chaos in this current toddler season and much of my attention becomes consumed with the most pressing task at hand and not with ushering my deeper ideals and intentions into reality. It has not been uncommon for Graham to remind us halfway through the meal that perhaps we ought to pray. We’re learning together and that’s okay. And until prayer becomes a little more habitual for me, I have become aware that at the very least, I do respond to visual cues if I am intentional enough to put them in place. So I’ve created these cards for us as a tool to remember to make prayer a regular part of our days and wanted to make them available for others as well. 

In addition to this collection of prayers, I wanted to offer two very small tokens of advice for encouraging a prayer habit with little ones that we’ve learned along our journey thus far.

The first, set yourself up for remembrance during the habit building process. Remembrance of where the ideological meets the tangible has been a long time struggle for me. So for me, setting myself up for success in remembrance is often some sort of visual cue: a stack of prayer cards in the silverware drawer, a prayer hung on the refrigerator or taped to the placemat or next to the toothbrushes, etc. For others, this might be setting a timer on your phone. Something I’ve noticed and appreciated is that children tend to have a particular affinity for the predictable and familiar rhythms. It’s not all that surprising that they are often the ones who do the reminding as a habit takes shape.

The second recommendation, start simple. This piece I admittedly learned by way of not doing it. When I decided that I was going to introduce Graham to prayers, I planned to really introduce him to prayers. I wanted them to be beautiful, theologically sound and I didn’t see how a rhyme would hurt anyone either. But my inability to find the exact sort of prayers that I wanted and that were also suitable for a one year old resulted in our doing nothing at all. But sometimes our intentions come to life when we embrace the imperfect circumstances of life.

One evening at bedtime, we simply began with a random prayer that started with, “Dear God…” and proceeded in a list of all that we were grateful for in that day and concluded with an, “Amen.” We’ve been pretty consistent with this little ritual ever since. 

I think teaching children about prayer is rooted in modeling prayer ourselves and exposing them to beautiful, theologically rich prayers. I also believe it’s about giving them opportunities to practice prayer for themselves, to grow comfortable with their own language. So, we’re trying to provide opportunities for both.

I’ve included just the text of the prayers below if you’d prefer to use them that way. The printable cards PDF you’ll find just below those.

God is great.

God is good.

Let us thank Him for our food.

By His hands we all are fed.

Thank you for our daily bread.

Amen.

Our Father,

Who art in heaven,

Hallowed be Your name.

Your kingdom come,

Your will be done on earth

As it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread,

And forgive us our debts,

As we forgive our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation,

But deliver us from evil,

For Yours is the kingdom and the power

And the glory forever and ever.

Amen.

The Lord’s Prayer

God, we thank you for this food,

For rest and home and all things good.

For wind and rain and sun above,

But most of all for those we love.

Amen.

Maryleona Frost

For food that stays our hunger,

For rest that brings us ease,

For homes where memories linger,

We give our thanks for these.

Amen.

For flowers that bloom about our feet,

For tender grass so fresh and sweet,

For the song of bird and hum of bee,

For all things fair we hear or see,

For blue if stream and blue of sky,

For pleasant shade of branches high,

For fragrant air and cooling breeze,

For beauty of the blooming trees,

For this new morning with its light,

For rest and shelter of the night,

For health and food, for love and friends,

For everything Thy goodness sends,

Father in heaven, we thank Thee.

Amen.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Day by day, dear Lord,

These three things I pray:

to see you more clearly,

love you more dearly,

follow you more nearly,

day by day.

St. Richard of Chichester

If you can use anything, Lord,

You can use me.

So take my hands, Lord,

And my feet.

Touch my heart

And speak through me.

If you can use anything,

You can use me.

Amen.

Ron Kenoly

And now another day is gone,

I’ll sing my Maker’s praise;

My comforts every hour make known

His Providence and Grace.

But how my childhood runs to waste!

My sins how great their sum!

Lord, give me pardon for the past;

And strength for days to come.

I lay my body down to sleep;

Let angels guard my head,

And through the hours of darkness

Keep their watch around my head.

Isaac Watts