Want to teach children to pray but not sure when to start or how to do it? These free printable prayer prompts are an excellent guide for helping children know what to pray about.
As we are spending the month improving the spiritual health of our family, we have tried to be more intentional during our evening prayer and song before bed.
Teaching children to pray
Sometimes, our insecurity in teaching kids to pray begins with our own apprehension. Always remember that prayer is a conversation. You don’t hesitate to talk to the other people in your life and you can talk to God the same way.
Some people find it helpful to remember the acrostic ACTS when praying:
A – Adoration (bragging to God about God)
C – Confession (recognizing the things in your life that need to be changed)
T – Thanksgiving (thanking God for all He has done)
S – Stuff (all the other things that you need to pray about including other people and your needs)
However, there is not a preferred formula required when talking to God. He just wants to hear from us.
This is the mindset with which we should teach our children to pray.
At what age should you teach a child to pray?
Many parents wonder if their children are too young to teach about prayer. Honestly, I don’t think you can start too early, but it’s never too late.
Is there a correct posture of prayer you should teach children?
We taught our children that you can pray anywhere with your eyes open or closed but it is best to find a quiet place away from distractions where you can concentrate.
Then, we explained how closing your eyes and sitting quietly can help keep you from being distracted when you are in a group.
How can you help children pray out loud?
Our children have been exposed to prayer since before birth (if that is possible.) Even so, they can be apprehensive about praying out loud.
The best way to teach children to pray out loud is allow them to see you pray. And pray often. Not just as mealtimes and not a memorized prayer. But prayer from the heart.
What should children pray about?
As we tried to teach the children, we never forced one of them to pray but would ask for a volunteer. Inevitably, one of the children would say, “I don’t know what to pray about.”
These printable prayer prompt cards help spark ideas for prayer while also teaching that prayer is about thanking and interceding for others as well as asking for things we need.
The cards also have Scriptures on the bottom to affirm that we can talk to God anytime and about anything.
Free Prayer Prompt Cards for Kids
If you are interested in using these printable prayer prompt cards for the children in your church small group, feel free! No need to contact me for permission as I cannot respond to every email.
Great Bibles for Kids
As part of any conversation, prayer is not just about talking to God but listening to Him as well. I believe God speaks to us in many ways but His primary form of communication is through His Word, the Bible.
These are excellent starter Bibles for kids:
The Beginner’s Bible: Timeless Children’s Stories
NIV Faithgirlz! Bible, Revised Edition
Adventure Bible for Early Readers, NIrV
Day by Day Kid’s Bible: The Bible for Young Readers (Tyndale Kids)
Other Bible lessons for kids
These other character lessons might be helpful as you raise your children to know God and to love Him.
These are FANTASTIC!!! Thank you so much. My boys will love it!
Love these! I am going to print some of these out and send them to our Compassion kids
This is wonderful!! We go through the “I don’t know what to pray about” problem often. These cards should help. Thanks!
Is there some particular reason both sets of cards are gender-specific? What if you’d like all your children (of both genders) to use the same set?
No real reason. I just created one set that appealed more to my boys and wanted something equally attractive for my oldest girl. 🙂
I think you could have found more appealing labels for them such as “flowers” and “bugs/insects” to include all children with their varied interests.
These are beautiful. Thank you for sharing and thanks for the linky. Thrilled to have found you. I will be printing these!
I LOVE this idea! Thank you!!
Just want to thank you for the idea. I have a son and a daughter. And I really like the idea of giving them something they can carry with them, look at and reflect upon. We’re not a religious family, so the content of the cards is a little different. For example, I want my children realize that they’re responsible for the outcome of their actions and know they can ask their parents and friends for support and advice. I’ve also include a little pen and some blank pages so they can develop their own cards.
That is a great idea! I think affirmation cards in any form would be very encouraging for a child. 🙂
That’s a great idea! Thanks for sharing it. I will be using it.
But what to do with those who don’t know how to read yet? Should I use pictures instead?
Thanks.
That’s a great idea to use pictures. I might have to work on that set next. 🙂
I am unable to open the link…I would really love to print these for my boys!! Any help/suggestions? Thanks so much for a great printable and your help 🙂
I have searched for the email and entered it multiple times but still no email! I would love to download these!
I love these! I am sharing them as part of a (belated) KBN shout out.
I love this! I think we are going to use this for our Brownie Troop’s Family of God retreat.
I wanted to thank you for these. I printed these out and put them in the mutual Bible workbook that the 4 kids use everyday. My 9 year old son, came out from the bedroom after following the steps and was so excited to tell me what exactly he had said to “God”. What a simple concept that we take for granted, but an amazing tool to help the children “learn” to pray! God Bless
Sorry don’t know why I put God in quotations. I meant to put it before the what and after God, showing that he had said it.
I love this idea and would love to use them for my Wednesday night Master Clubs kids at church. We’ll be starting a prayer project in the next few weeks but we use the KJV of the Bible. I would like to know how I can change the verse at the bottom of the cards to the KJV verse so that it will match our curriculum. Please email me if changing the verse is possible.
thank you!
we are going to use this with our class at church!
Thank you very much for this idea!
I’m a nun and work with children. Recently I met this problem: children often don’t know what pray about and also forgive to pray at home. I translated these cards into Russian (it is our language in Kazakhstan’s Church), printed and used them during my Sundayschool lesson. It was great! Children were happy to create their own “prayer help-guide”.
But after such excellent lesson I have idea to share these translated cards with other priests and nuns in Russia and Kazakhstan because we have a problem with such good and practice materials for children on Russian. Can I do it? Of course, your name will be saved on cards. I don’t want to pirate. Just want to share these translated cards with Russian-speaking religion teachers. What do you think?
This is awesome! I have done a similar activity with my sunday school kids. We used a prayer cube to give kids ideas for what to pray about when praying for friends and family.
I know you posted this about three years ago…but wondered if I can still get an email to download them? I filled in the forms (for both the girl version and the boy version) earlier today and haven’t received anything. Just did it again. I would love to use them in my Sunday school class tomorrow – we are talking about prayer and these look wonderful! Would be great to be able to send these home with the kids. Thanks so much for creating and sharing these!
i am starting a Sunday school at church, was wondering if I can get help getting those cards
I appreciate this! Thank you–perfect idea!
This will be for VBS for the children to learn to pray
Hi Tabitha,
I have subscribed to the prompt cards thrice but I have yet to receive the email..can you help me? 🙂
Please send me the link to the following:
Printable Divisions of the Bible Cards
Printable Pray Prompt Cards for Kids
and any other free printables for my kids ministry outreach.
Thank you!
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I cannot get past the minimum password requirement to download these cards. I have tried everything up to 20 characters with numbers and capitals. I would love to use these on my upcoming mission trip to the Philippians for VBS. Thank you for your time. Have a blessed day.
I feel like I’m going to get a lot of spam for trying to teach children to be closer to God.
These would be great to use a my schools in our prayer spaces. Is it ok to use these in this way please?