Teaching Kids to Pray Daily with 3 Kids Devotional Time Tips

Is your wish in this New Year for the children around you to draw closer to God? Spending personal time with God is just as important for kids as it is for you! In fact, teaching kids to pray and have their own kids devotional time every day is one of the best ways to help them grow in their faith and strengthen it well into adulthood.

God wants to spend time with all of His children, regardless of their age! Sadly, however, many children have no idea how to have a kids devotional time. Here are 3 ways you can help children start a lifetime of relationship with God by teaching kids to pray and establishing a daily kids devotional time.

1. Create a Kids Devotional Space

First, help inspire children to look forward to quiet time and see their daily kids devotional as the incredible gift it is, by helping kids choose their own special place to have their time alone with God. This could be a certain armchair, a hidden nook in the house, a dedicated prayer room, or a special spot outside if the weather is good. The location doesn’t matter, so long as it’s a specific place the child can use to focus and get away with God. Even a space that’s small or simple can be made special with a few cozy, personal touches! Having a designated place for their kids devotional time is what helps make those devotions purposeful and memorable.

How CEF Can Help Your Kids Devotional Time

Want help making your kids devotional time even more habitual? A fun song you can use to start everyone off with their devotions in the morning can be found on CEF’s YouTube channel, U-Nite Kids, titled Three Questions – Song Video. By playing this song every morning, you can help affirm that children have the Holy Spirit too, while letting everyone know it’s time to head to their special place for their personal devotions.

2. Provide All the Kids Devotional Essentials

Next, ask yourself what supplies children might need to start a kids devotional time. Some of the common kids devotional essentials are a:

1. Bible
2. Notebook
3. Pencil with a good eraser

They could also use a kids devotional book to help guide their quiet time in a more meaningful way, a timer to start building the daily habit, or a step-by-step visual aid of the structure a kids devotional time should follow to help keep them on task. 

How CEF Can Help Your Kids Devotional Time

Looking for inexpensive kids devotional books to help guide children into a deeper understanding of God through their quiet time? Child Evangelism Fellowship® offers kids devotional books for children of all ages.

Perfect for younger children and a six-book-series, the Every Day with God kids devotional book teaches all about creation, the person of God and story of Moses, the chronological life of Jesus, and the book of Acts. These books help children learn to go through the Bible systematically, so they are familiar with all of God’s Word—rather than just jumping around with no direction. For older children, The 60-Day Wonder Devotional Books follows systematic theology and cover many discipleship topics in thoughtful detail. Both kids devotional books can be found at https://cefpress.com/.

3. Show What Kids Devotional Time Looks Like

Last but not least, it’s important your child knows how to have quiet time and what it typically looks like. A good kids devotional time usually consists of four parts:

1. opening prayer;
2. reading the Bible or a kids devotional book;
3. writing down thoughts or verses; and 
4. a closing prayer.

1) Opening Prayer

First, teach kids to start by praying—confessing sins, thanking God for what He has done for them, asking God to help them to understand what they will read in the Bible, and asking Him for help to obey what it says. Teaching kids to pray in this way is so important to help kids build a relationship with God that goes beyond simply asking for things.

2) Reading

Next, read a short passage in the Bible or a kids devotional book and spend time thinking about what the passage says, means, and—most importantly—what God is saying to them through it. The number of verses that a child reads could correlate with their age at first. However, once their comprehension is better, encourage children to read a whole chapter of the Bible in their daily devotions. The Book of Proverbs is a great place to start for those little daily nuggets of wisdom.

3) Writing

To help kids process their thoughts and remember what they read, it’s good to write something every day about what children learned in their kids devotional time. Even kids who can’t compose full sentences on their own can still copy a few words from the Bible.

4) Closing Prayer

Finally, tell children to end their kids devotional time by praying again. They can thank God for speaking to them or ask Him for help obeying Him in what they learned. To help kids remember this kids devotional time structure, consider providing a keyword or visual aid they can follow.

How CEF Can Help Your Kids Devotional Time

CEF has several trainings devoted to helping teachers and parents alike feel equipped to guide children through various gospel, discipleship, and Christian living principles. From learning how to guide kids through a salvation prayer, to teaching kids to pray and grow in their faith through kids devotionals, visit www.cefonline.com/locations to get connected with your local CEF chapter.

By starting young, saved children who have a regular kids devotional time can begin building good habits that help them walk with God throughout their entire lives. Let’s all start the new year out with resolve to enjoy time with God every morning!