Is prayer a relationship or a habit? Or is it both? Whether your kids are wiggly skeptics, deep feelers, or quietly absorbing everything you do, this episode will show you how to plant simple prayer “seeds” that take root and flourish in your home.
In this solo episode, we’ll dig deep into the topic of prayer, and how to nurture a vibrant, approachable prayer life for yourself and your children, even if it feels intimidating or awkward at first.
Discover how tiny, intentional moments can help your family cultivate a culture of prayer, why it’s okay to start small (think 30 seconds or less!), and practical ways to anchor prayer into your daily routine. Drawing inspiration from real-life parenting stories, church history, and tried-and-true habit strategies, you’ll receive the tools you need to gently lead your family into authentic connection with God—no Pinterest-perfect prayers required!
✨ In this episode:
- How to make prayer a natural, joyful part of family life
- The faith growth cycle for forming easy prayer habits
- Simple ways to pray (even if your kids aren’t keen)
- Everyday “anchors” to help new prayer habits stick
- How to celebrate and nurture your prayer life as a parent
📚 FOLLOW-UP RESOURCES:
- Month-long Prayer calendar
- Made To Pray, a 12-day, hands-on guide to better prayer
Subscribe on your favorite listening platform for practical tips, real parent interviews, and encouragement as we become faith gardeners together!
Here are 3 key takeaways you can bring to your family or personal habits:
🔹 Start Small, Stay Consistent: Building a prayer habit doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Even 30–60 seconds attached to an everyday routine—like bedtime or after school—can lead to deep-rooted family practices.
🔹 Make It Meaningful (and Celebratory): Pair prayer with a small celebration—a hug or a high five—to wire the habit into your family’s routine and make faith feel joyful and connected.
🔹 Keep Growing Your Roots: Once the initial habit is set, look for ways to deepen and expand—track requests, switch up formats, or encourage kids to take the lead. Growth isn’t about perfection, but a steady deepening of relationship.
If you’re ready to turn little shoots of desire into deep roots of family faith, the episode is packed with practical steps and free resources (like a month-long prayer calendar and a hands-on prayer journey for families) to help you get started.
📝TRANSCRIPT
Welcome to Little Shoots, Deep Roots, where we become faith gardeners, cultivating deep faith in our families one little habit at a time. I’m your fellow gardener, Christie Thomas.
Today, we’re talking about prayer—how to grow a vibrant prayer life for yourself and your family. Whether prayer feels natural or a bit intimidating, we’ll explore how to make this vital practice a simple, everyday habit.
Learning to Pray Authentically
In her book, Raising Prayerful Kids, Sarah Holmstrom shares a funny story. She had gotten an acting part in a commercial, and when she showed up on set with her two oldest kids, she felt completely out of her element. She felt really insecure and kept messing up her lines, while her kids waited quietly in a nearby room. She messed up again and again, until finally she remembered her lines and finished the shoot.
She shares the conversation she had with her kids on the way home.
I asked the kids, “Did you guys hear me messing up today?”
My son said, “no offense, Mom, but you did terrible.”
My daughter said, “Yeah, Mom, you kept messing up and messing up, so Charlie decided we should pray for you.”
I was touched.
“Did you guys pray for me in your heads?” I asked.
Brinley replied, “No, we each took turns praying out loud for you, but we had to be really quiet so we wouldn’t mess up the shoot.”
Charlie piped in, “Yep, and you kept messing up even worse, so we had to pray again!”
Brinley added, “Finally, you remembered your lines and second time we prayed!”
In the front seat of the car, my tears started welling up. I remembered all the times when I felt like they weren’t really listening or engaged when we prayed, but here they were just taking initiative – without an adult even in the room – to notice a problem and ask God for help. They knew they needed God to step in and intervene for their mom! It reminded me that even when it feels like all my efforts are in vain, they are watching, they are noticing, and they are learning. For some of our kids, it takes longer than others. Even now, some of my kids are talking with God just because it’s something we do – it’s part of the culture of our home. For others, it feels like their relationship with God is already very sincere. I know and trust that when the time is right, God is going to make himself real to them, and they will already have seen and witnessed and practiced how to cry out to him.
I love that story from Sarah, because it shows how, seemingly under cover, her kids had slowly been becoming people of prayer as she continued to pray for and with them.
The Power of Prayer
In a book written way back in the 1500s, A Simple Way to Pray, Martin Luther recommended that prayer “be the first business of the morning and the last at night. Guard yourself carefully against those false, deluding ideas which tell you, “Wait a little while. I will pray in an hour; first I must attend to this or that.” Such thoughts get you away from prayer into other affairs which so hold your attention and involve you that nothing comes of prayer for that day.
3 Philippians 4:6-7 says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
In another book, Luther provided content and structure for a blessing or prayer “in the morning, as soon as you get out of bed” as well as an evening blessing “in the evening, when you go to bed.” He also provided prayers for before and after meals. Because he knew that set times and habits of prayer could be helpful to the Christian. Here’s another quote from one of his books:
“Therefore from youth on we should form the habit of praying daily for our needs, whenever we are aware of anything that affects us or other people around us, such as preachers, magistrates, neighbors, and servants; and, as I have said, we should always remind God of his commandment and promise.…Prayer connects us to God’s heart, brings us His peace, and helps us align our will with His. It’s not just something we do; it’s a relationship we nurture.”
Andrew Murray wrote that “Though in its beginnings prayer is so simple that the feeblest child can pray, it is at the same time the highest and holiest work to which man can rise.” (With Christ in the School of Prayer, 10)
Ok, so thanks to Martin Luther, Jesus, and many others, we know how important prayer is. But HOW do we do it? How do we remember to pray with our kids, especially the many times they’re not super keen on doing it? How do we even remember to do it ourselves?
The good news is, I have an answer for that.
The Faith Growth Cycle: Prayer Edition
In my book, Little Habits, Big Faith: How Simple Practices Help Your Family Grow in Jesus, I teach the Faith Growth Cycle which helps us make tiny changes in our lives that add up over time, giving us our own stories like Sarah’s story of her kids praying for her. Today, we’ll apply the Faith Growth Cycle to prayer and discover simple ways to deepen this practice in our lives and families.
1. The Seed Stage
The Seed stage begins with a desire for deeper prayer. We bring this longing to God, asking Him to guide us. Hopefully the stories I’ve shared have given you a thirst for a deeper prayer life, either for yourself or with your family. Let’s pray together:
God, thank you for the gift of prayer—the privilege of coming to you with everything on our hearts. I want to grow in my prayer life and lead my family in prayer. For the times I’ve neglected prayer or felt unsure how to pray, forgive me. Plant in me a deep longing to connect with you and show me a small step I can take today to grow in prayer. In the name of Jesus, amen.
2. The Sprout Stage
In the Sprout stage, we take that desire and turn it into a small, practical habit.
Here’s the 5-step process:
- Choose a habit: Prayer.
- Make it smaller: Start with just 30-60 seconds of prayer. There are lots of different ways to do this! Because prayer is so multi-faceted, there are thousands of different types of prayers you could pray with your kids, or even alone.
- Say a one-sentence prayer with your kids before school.
- Pray a short blessing at bedtime.
- Use a simple phrase like, “Thank you, God, for today,” during transitions in your day.
- Pray for the injured when you hear an ambulance siren, or for your community when you see a police car
- Attach it to something you already do:
- Pray together before meals.
- Say a quick prayer while brushing your kids’ hair or tying their shoes.
- End your family devotional time with a prayer.
- Celebrate: What if saying the Lord’s Prayer with your kids doesn’t naturally give you a spiritual high? Even if a family faith habit doesn’t bring inherent joy and there’s no way to make it playful, you can easily make yourself feel good about a behavior: just create an instant celebration for yourself!
Here’s how it works. Let’s say you want to say the Lord’s Prayer with your child at bedtime. You choose as your anchor something like, “after I sit down on her bed to say goodnight,” and then you say the Lord’s Prayer.
Next, before you do anything else, reach over and give your child a hug or a high five. That will bring a smile to both of you and release the hormones that make you feel good. And just like that, you’ve created a powerful connection between that prompt, behavior, and celebration. The next time you kneel to say goodnight, your brain and her brain will both say, “Hey, let’s do that thing that made me feel good!” You might still need to remind yourself the first few times, but it’ll wire in extra fast when you practice celebration.
5. Set yourself up for success: What do you need to do one time so you can get started? The best way to think of what you need is to ask yourself, “what will make this hard to do/hard to remember?” Maybe you want a scripted prayer – in that case, you’ll need to write out a few simple prayers and post them around your house. Maybe you want to use a prayer app, or create a prayer jar filled with prayer requests. To set yourself up for success, you need to download that app, or find a jar and write down a bunch of prayer requests.
3. The Root Stage
If you already have a habit of prayer, ask God how He wants to deepen it. Here are a few ways to grow:
- Pray longer: Add a few more minutes to your prayer time.
- Pray intentionally: Use a prayer journal to track requests and answers.
- Expand your focus: Pray for specific people, global issues, or unreached nations.
- Involve your family: Let your kids take turns leading prayer or sharing requests.
The goal isn’t perfection but a deeper connection with God.
Practical Tools for Prayer
To help you get started, I’ve linked two resources in the show notes:
- A month-long prayer calendar with simple prompts to kick off your prayer time.
- And Made To Pray, a 12-day prayer journey for your family to try out different ways to communicate with our amazing God.
Coming Up Next
In the next episode, I’ll be talking with my sweet friends Sarah Holmstrom and Stephanie Thurling, who started a ministry called Raising Prayerful Kids. You won’t want to miss it!
Closing Blessing
Let me pray a blessing over you. If you’re able, hold out your hands to receive it:
May God open your heart to deeper conversations with Him. May He bless your family’s prayer time, bringing peace, joy, and connection as you draw closer to Him. May His Spirit guide your prayers and grow your faith. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Thanks for joining me here at Little Shoots, Deep Roots. If you’ve enjoyed this podcast, I’d love if you’d take a minute to leave a review. And please download the free prayer resources linked in the show notes.
Growing with you,
Christie
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