FAITH + LIFE + MENTAL HEALTH: Praying With Your Kids Before School

By Alexis Rosendo

As parents, and Christian parents, we can create a routine around harnessing the power of prayer to maintain mental wellness. Prayer is such a powerful tool, (if you are interested in hearing more about prayer, see the post “What Is Prayer?”) and one that has to be taught and practiced in order to truly bring about the full richness of its benefits. We Christian parents are always looking for ways to model faith before our kids and to lovingly invite them into, one day, choosing Jesus Christ as their savior. What are the small ways that we can begin to plant seeds of prayer and mental wellness in the lives of our children? 

Why don’t you try praying with and over your children before school? As school prepares to begin for the new year, we have the unique opportunity to start new habits that cultivate spiritual and mental wellness and can be maintained all year long. Prayer is a great place to begin!

Here are the benefits of praying before school: 

1. It is something that you do with your kids = bonding, connection, investment of time
2. Prayer sets the mental, emotional and spiritual framework for the day = increases chances of successful outcomes and positive attitudes 
3. Prayer can release and calm your child’s anxieties about their school day
4. Prayer can release and calm your anxiety about your child’s school day
5. Prayer reinforces that we go to God regularly with adoration, thanksgiving, and for comfort
6. Prayer opens the door for your children to explore their own personal faith and establishes that you are a safe person to go to with questions about faith

All great stuff, don’t you agree? Reading through the benefits of prayer before school helps to build our motivation for creating this amazing habit. Once you’re ready to start praying with and over your child(ren) before each school day, check out the following tips.

tips for praying with your kids before school:

1. Keep it low pressure! Our goal is to introduce prayer as something that is enjoyable and beneficial, not stressful, or an obligation. We get to pray, as a privilege! The more positive memories your child associate with prayer, the more likely it is that they will choose a lifestyle of prayer as they get older. 
2. Model a lifestyle of prayer before your kids. Children will do as you do, not as you say! Praying with them and over them is a great way to model your own prayer life before then! However, if you only pray before their school day, they will only pray before their school day. Even though praying before school is the habit that we are trying to create, make sure your children also see you modeling Prayer throughout the day, having regular and healthy conversations with God. Great opportunities for this are before/during meals (“I thank God that we always have enough to eat, I feel very grateful”), during car rides (“What do you guys see out your window that you want to give God thanks for? I’m glad they are finally fixing our street so we can drive on it without all the stress”), and during difficult parenting moments (“Wow, this has been such a frustrating day for us! God, please give me the patience I need right now. I really need help to keep my temper in check. Amen.”).
3. Keep it short! Again, we want children to find prayer enjoyable and to be able to associate the benefits of prayer with the prayer itself. We don’t want to overwhelm them with a long prayer, nor do we want to confuse them! Either create a three or four line prayer that you will say every single day as something to memorize, or only pray for about 30 seconds to a minute at a time so it is brief and direct. 
4. Keep it consistent! The key to creating and sustaining any habit is consistency. The aim is to make prayer just another part of your kids’ school day, their routine, their life. Let prayer become who they are, not just what they do. The only way to achieve this is to be consistent.

Whew! So, it may sound harder than it is. However, as someone who grew up praying with my family before every single day of school, I am attest to the fact that it truly has the potential to accomplish the outcomes we hope for!

Here is the prayer I’ve been using daily since my oldest began preschool a year ago: 

Dear God, 

As I take my baby to school, I pray for (child’s name), I pray for the teachers, I pray for the students. 

May you help him/her to listen and learn,

May you allow him/her to grow and thrive,

May he/she always know that he/she is safe and loved. 

In Jesus’ name, amen! 

Saying this prayer in the car before getting out to drop off my sweet child became a moment of pause, calm, and reassurance. It helped me to manage my own separation anxiety around my child beginning school, and it became something that he memorized and said with me. I often paused at the end for him to say on his own that that he is “SAFE and LOVED”! It became our affirmation, our collective declaration. Feel free to use our prayer or to follow the template and adapt for the specific blessings you want to speak over your child. I am praying for a great school year for my child and yours! 

Onward and upward!