Have you ever thought about creating a prayer journal with your kids or students? Prayer journals can be a great way to help your kids develop their own faith and grow in their spiritual life. As a parent, it gives you an opportunity to teach your children how to pray on their own and helps you guide them through this important part of their faith journey.
This post will walk you through how to create a prayer journal that kids (or anyone) can use plus help you get started teaching about prayer.
What is a prayer journal?
A prayer journal is a place to record your prayers. It could simply be a piece of paper, a notebook, or even an app on a device.
The purpose of keeping a prayer journal is to help you remember and reflect on what you’ve been praying about. You can use it to write down your actual prayers, and draw pictures, process gratitudes or problems. You can also write down any thoughts or feelings that come up while praying—for example, you might write whether something made you angry or happy during the course of your conversation with God.
Why should you create a prayer journal with your kids?
It’s a great way to teach your kids about prayer. Prayer can be a very abstract concept for children so having a physical place for prayers can be really powerful.
A prayer journal can help your child learn to pray for others, and this will have a positive impact on their faith. Praying regularly is one of the most important things you can do as a believer in Christ, so teaching them how to do it early on will help them grow in their faith as they get older.
Creating a prayer journal with your kids also lets them learn how to pray intentionally. It gives them practice thinking about what matters to them and what needs fixing in their lives or the world around them—and then writing down those thoughts so they don’t forget about them!
Finally, having a place where kids can write down prayers gives parents an opportunity to point out scriptural references related specifically to prayer that might not otherwise come up.
How to Get Started with a Prayer Journal
Getting your children started with a prayer journal is easy with this printable prayer journal for kids. Having a little direction and guidance goes on a long way in helping children learn to pray. These printable prayer pages will help guide children to pray for others, themselves, and our world. These prayer journal pages are appropriate for kids of all ages and can be used in so many different ways.
I recommend creating a prayer journal for each child individually. I like to glue the front cover to a three-pronged folder and then hole-punch pages for the inside. I recommend starting small with one type of prayer page.
Who can use this prayer journal for kids?
These prayer journals can be used by parents, teachers in private Christian schools, and Sunday school teachers! These pages have been used by preschool-aged children to adults!
What should you include in a Prayer Journal for Kids?
A prayer journal can include so many different things. Here are the types of pages I include in the Kids Printable Prayer Journal:
Daily Prayers
Daily Prayer pages are perfect if you are planning to incorporate journaling into your daily routine. These simple pages will help kids write or draw a prayer in each box for each day. Versions are included for a full week (Sunday through Saturday) or for a school week (Monday through Friday.)
Prayers of Thanksgiving
These “Thank You God!” prayer pages encourage children to write or draw five things that they are thankful for. Gratitude journaling is a practice that many people benefit from. This i a great way to help children reflect on their lives and the blessing they have.
Thank You God Picture Prayer Pages are also included for students to draw things that they want to thank God for, including:
- Family
- Friends
- Home
- School
- Teacher
- Me
Hi God Prayer Template
These “Hi God!” prayer pages really help children to think of God as a friend that they can always talk to. Children can write or draw anything in the speech bubble to tell God.
Dear God Prayer Page
Dear God Prayer pages for kids to write any prayer they chose! Lined, primary lined and blank for pictures are included!
God is Always with Me
Write or draw a happy time to thank God for and a sad time to ask Him for help. If you For more on promoting social-emotional learning skills, check out this post: How to Promote Social-Emotional Learning Skills in the Classroom.
Guided Prayer Pages
These prayer pages are perfect for children who have a specific prayer. Each page has a sentence stem and the children will finish the prayer.
- Take care of…
- Help me with…
- I am thankful for…
A combination page also includes all three prayer sentence stems for children who are ready to put the prayers together and think about multiple needs at once.
Printable Prayer Journal Template
Templates can be so helpful for children just getting started in their prayer life! You can print and use all of these prayer journal templates right now. They are available in my best-selling resource, Kids Printable Prayer Journal. Plus, all of the pages are black and white to save ink!
Other Ideas for Using a Prayer Journal with Kids
Here are a few other ideas for using a prayer journal with kids:
- Use pictures. Encourage children to pray for specific people by gluing their pictures in their prayer journals. You can read More about praying for specific people and how I started this process with my own children in this post, Praying with Toddlers.
- Children can illustrate a favorite bible story or bible verse.
Prayer is an important part of the Christian life, and it can be a great way for kids to develop their faith. To make prayer more meaningful, you can create a prayer journal with your children. This will help them learn how to pray and also give them something concrete to do when they feel like God isn’t listening or answering their prayers. It’s also a great way for kids to express their gratitude for all that they have in life!