Explore some of the ways that help me add prayer into my regular routine as a parent. These strategies for adding prayer into your routine can be helpful as a stay-at-home parent, a working parent, or anyone who wants the Lord to be a more routine part of their life.
It is the beginning of a year again, which means many people are making resolutions and goals to better themselves. Like many Christians, spending more time with the Lord makes it onto my list again this year. So far, I have tried a few different strategies and this post goes over the ideas I have found most helpful in adding prayer to my routine.
I want to preface this post with saying that I am by no means perfect. I do not accomplish every single one of these strategies every day, but I do try to implement at least a few of them a day. As a parent, one of my goals is to introduce my son to the love of God from a young age. This requires diligence. I try to allow times that my son to sees me spending time with God. I also try to allow him his own time to spend time with God.
YouTube Video Of Our Routine
Watch this YouTube video of a daily routine with us to see how I add prayer to my everyday life!
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Ways to Schedule Prayer into Your Regular Routine
Schedule Time For Prayer In Your Regular Routine
The first tip is to schedule time for prayer first. While prayer does not necessarily have to be the first thing you do every morning, it needs to be scheduled. Whether you plan out your time a week in advance or the day of, knowing what time to add prayer is an important step in praying more often.
Prayer does not need to happen at the same time everyday. Prayer also does not need to last a long time or look extravagant everyday. The goal is to intentionally spend time with God everyday and to know exactly when in the day this will happen. Planning it out in advance will make it more likely for you to pray.
Visual Reminders to Add Prayer to Your Regular Routine
Visual Reminders to pray can be very helpful. This can take a couple of different approaches. One is setting alarms on your phone at certain times of the day as a reminder to stop and pray. Another option is setting out physical reminders, such as leaving your bible somewhere you will definitely see it, to help remind you to pray.
Habit Stacking to Add Prayer to Your Regular Routine
Habit stacking is adding prayer to something that is already part of your regular routine. For example, adding some prayer time eating breakfast or adding some time for bible reading during nap time.
Adding Little Prayer Times to Your Regular Routine
Adding little prayer times throughout the day has been one strategy that I have found very helpful. These can be specific times in my routine that I know are blocked out for prayer. These can also be little moments that I find to center me back to prayer.
For example, instead of making a wish when the clock says 11:11, I will say a Hail Mary if I look at the clock and it’s double even numbers (i.e. 2:02). I will say an Our Father is the clock reads double odd numbers (i.e. 11:11). Additionally, bedtime prayers with our son is a time that we have every day devoted to prayer.
How to Spend Prayer Time
Here are some ideas of how I like to spend my time in prayer. It can be nice to mix up the environment of prayer, as well: sit in a new room, go outside, pray on a walk. God can be found everywhere.
Reading
Bible– Bible reading is one of the best and most accessible forms of prayer. Being connected to the Word on a daily basis greatly strengthens our relationship with God and helps in discernment. The bible can be found very easily too. If you don’t have access to a physical copy of a bible, there are several podcasts and apps that have the bible for free.
Here are some recommendations for a bible:
Precious Moments Children’s Bible
Books– There are so many amazing options of books that can deepen our faith. Books can appeal to a variety of readers as well: real people’s faith journeys, informational books, inspirational books, and more.
Here are some recommendations for faith based books:
Catechism of the Catholic Church
The Imitation of Christ- Thomas A Kempis
Devotionals– Similarly, there are many kinds of devotionals out there for all kinds of people. Parenting devotionals, marriage devotionals, devotionals designed to encourage self-growth, and more.
Here are some recommendations for devotionals:
Listening
Podcasts– Podcasts are one of my favorite ways to find inspiration and information regarding my faith. “The Bible in a Year Podcast” by Fr. Mike Schmitz to helps me read and understand the bible. Some podcasts are more designed for inspiration and comradery, such as the “Abiding Together” podcast. There are also podcasts to help you keep track of memorized prayers, such as the rosary, like “The Creedal” Podcast.
Music– Music is another great way to add prayer to your day through listening. Music is fantastic because it can be layered with other routine things, like cleaning or driving. It can help keep us centered during a walk. It can also be a nice break in the day for a worship session. There are so many amazing ways to add music into your prayer routine.
Memorized Prayer
Memorized prayers can help us keep prayer in our lives, especially if we are crunched for time or are just learning how to pray. Some routine prayers: such as the Angelus and the Divine Mercy Chaplet, are quite short and can be a nice break during the day. They are also typically said at specific times in the day (the Angelus at noon and the Divine Mercy Chaplet at 3pm). Setting alarms to say these prayers at specific times can be helpful.
Other routine prayers, like the Rosary, are a bit longer, but are still wonderful prayer tools. Asking for the Divine Mother’s intercession is a powerful way to pray. Additionally, the rosary is a great way to meditate on the bible as it goes through the various stages of Jesus’ life.
How to Add Prayer to Our Children’s Routines
Here is a list of things I incorporate in my son’s routine to add prayer and introduce him to the Lord from an early age:
Regular prayer times– This includes things like bedtime prayers and meal prayers. He knows to expect that we will pray at these times everyday. He is encouraged to add his own prayers if he would like to at these times, but it is not forced.
Prayer toys and books– He has toys that we bring to church and that he can play with at home to introduce him to prayer and various bible stories. These can be used as learning tools as I guide him through the stories and what each part means. He also has fun playing with these items in his own way.
Here are some of our favorite children’s Christian books and toys:
God the Father and the Best Day Ever
Music/Worship Time– There are several Christian songs that are great for little kids. One of our favorite Kids Christian channels is “Listener Kids.” They have great music that we like to play on Spotify for worship dance parties. They also have accompanying videos for their songs on YouTube that are very cute.
Church– Lastly, but certainly not least, we take our son to church every Sunday. Some days he is more wiggly than others, but weekly church attendance is so crucial to developing his relationship with Christ that it is always worth it.
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