Five practices for praying over your kids, excerpted from Everyday Prayers for Moms: Praying God’s Word for Your Children from Newborn to Empty Nest by Nicolet Bell releasing October 20, 2026!
Praying for our children can seem overwhelming at times, but no matter how busy we are as moms, taking the time to pray for our children will result in lasting fruit in our families. Prayer is not a last resort, but the first and best response to the challenges of parenting. Here are some quick tips for learning how to create a rhythm for prayer in your daily life.
Tip #1 – Create a Plan
Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always. —Psalm 105:4 (niv)
I have the best intentions to clean out the closet under my stairs. When I crack open the closet door, my best intentions fly out the window as I get completely overwhelmed with all of the junk that has accumulated in that closet. I don’t even know where to begin. Sometimes praying for our kids can feel like this. We can have the best intentions and the right desires, but when we actually sit down to pray, we often don’t know where to begin.
A few weeks ago, my husband and I both had a Saturday off and decided it was time to tackle the closet. … Preston looked at me at the end of the day and said, “Well, babe, I know we didn’t get as far as we hoped, but at least we got started.” Just like cleaning the closet, sometimes in our prayer lives, all we need to do is start. Sometimes the hardest step is the first step. God isn’t looking for perfect prayers; He is looking for honest prayers.
I find it helpful to create a plan. Thinking of one regular moment in your day that you can connect with God in prayer is a great way to get started. My friend and fellow author, Kayla Craig, calls this “liturgy of the ordinary.” Try to think of one regular, ordinary moment that is a part of your everyday life and attach a prayer to it.
Tip # 2 – Make Prayer a Priority
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. —Matthew 6:33
“Mom, grab your flashlight!” Josie yelled from the other room. “We’re going on a treasure hunt!” she explained, filled with excitement. After marching around for a while, I finally asked, “Josie, what is the treasure we are looking for?” to which she replied, “I don’t know, Mama, but it is a treasure!” It didn’t matter to Josie what we were looking for; she just knew it had value and was important. Jesus tells a parable in the Gospels about a “treasure hidden in a field” (Matthew 13:44) … Jesus tells us the treasure we are after is His kingdom, where we will live with Him forever and enjoy rich communion with Him.
At Million Praying Moms, we believe that prayer is our first response, not a last resort. For prayer to be our first response, we have to believe that it holds eternal value. To make prayer a priority, we need to think about what we are seeking. Are we seeking the things of the kingdom of the world or of God’s kingdom? Our thoughts are often a litmus test of what we are seeking.
Tip #3 – Create a Rhythm (Like Jesus Did)
Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. —Luke 5:15–16 (niv)
A word in this passage jumps off the page at me: often. Even as the crowds grew and the pressure for healing mounted, Jesus didn’t let that affect Him. Instead of chasing the crowds, He saw the crowds as a need to work even harder to carve out alone time with His Father. Jesus would often go up on a mountain, go out in a boat, or go out before dawn to meet with the Father in prayer. He knew it was the most important thing He could do. Prayer was His lifeline to the Father.
If I told you my marriage was great and then a little bit later on let you know that I don’t ever really talk to my husband, you would have doubts about the health of my marriage. That is how it can be with prayer. Does our approach to prayer match the depth of our relationship with God? Personally, I’ve found that praying in the morning helps set the tone and pace for my day, so I try to pray every morning. Whether I’m getting dressed, packing lunches, or bouncing a baby, I try to pray in the morning. It’s a pattern for me, a rhythm that I think helps me to be a better mom. Take one spot in your day and create a pattern of praying for your children.
Tip # 4 – Pray Honest, Humble Prayers
He went on a little farther and bowed with his face to the ground, praying, “My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.” —Matthew 26:39 (nlt)
As Jesus prepared to approach the cross, He took His disciples to a garden to pray and Jesus tells the disciples, “My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death” (Matthew 26:38). He told the Father what He was feeling when coming face-to-face with this task. I can feel the raw honesty in His tone: “Daddy, is there any other way?” He was in anguish, and He brought all that He was feeling before the Father. But in the end, Jesus surrenders His will to the will of the Father in complete and total trust.
There’s no use in us putting on a mask before God. In our prayers, we can be open and honest with the Father, assured that He knows everything about us and He loves us anyway. Nothing is too simple, sinful, ugly, unworthy, or unimportant. The Father wants every part of us. As Jesus modeled honest and humble prayers for us, we get to model this for our children. When our kids hear us pray honest prayers before the Father, they will have courage to do the same.
Tip #5 – Let Our Kids Join in Our Prayers
Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven. —Matthew 19:14
One day as I was closing my notebook and Bible, the thought popped into my head: “Leave these out; don’t put them up quite yet.” How would my kids know that I read my Bible if I don’t do it in front of them? It is the same way with prayer. How will our kids know that we pray if we don’t pray with them and for them? It’s so important that we allow our kids to not only witness us praying, but to invite them to be a part of our prayers.
The Ole Miss quarterback, Trinidad Chambliss, had a pretty cool pregame tradition that drew national attention during the playoffs this past season. Before every game, Trinidad found his mom in the stands at a designated meeting spot. She leaned over the side of the stands, placed her hands on his head, and prayed for him. Where is God asking you to invite your kids to pray? Maybe it’s the carpool line? Or the breakfast table? No matter the age of your kids, it’s never too late. Today, think of one way to invite your kids to join in prayer.
These 5 tips are half of the tips I share in my new book, Everyday Prayers for Moms. It releases on October 20 and I can’t wait for you to read it. You can preorder it here: https://amzn.to/4feTfHF.
