Where do I even start?

Where do we start with teaching how to journal with kids? Is it easy? Should I even consider it? It’s difficult for most adults to get into a groove of it. Also, what do you do about younger ones who can’t write and barely use a marker to scribble? How do we begin to instill a love of journaling in our young children that will carry them through their lives?

I think we have to remember that ultimately, this doesn’t have to difficult nor does this have to be above our children’s ability to write. The purpose of beginning early journaling habits is establish a meaningful purpose of prayer. Our kids don’t have to be fluent writers nor even competent in their CVC words to begin.

In this post you will learn:

1. First, where to find a starting point
2. Three journaling techniques to try (and can be suited for any age)
3. How to implement them

The Starting Point

To begin prayer journaling with your kids or students, consider three things:

1. How old are the children?
2. What are are they capable of doing with a pencil/crayon?
3. What’s their time threshold?

Age, fine motor skills, and concentration ability are important for where you start in prayer journaling because something to consider is that prayer journaling isn’t always written expression. Prayer journaling can look like an oral narration or even a drawing. Establish first a baseline of what you can expect. With a baseline, you’ll be able to build upon that skill. If your child can write, then begin with having your child practice actual journaling. If however, your child can only scribble, let your child scribble and narrate to you what the scribbles mean, or you can omit the scribbling altogether and just have your child tell you what he wants to pray for.

Understanding your child’s ability to concentrate is absolutely critical. With a younger child, you probably know very well how quickly a child is ready to stand up or dance around with ants in her pants (at least mine does!). My oldest two are capable of sitting at the table for closer to twenty minutes as we are engaging, but my youngest (a three year old) has a much harder time sitting still. She often starts with us and then wanders off. My toddler comes back at the end for prayer because she likes to participate.

If we can keep our children’s abilities in mind, it also helps us create realistic expectations. We won’t be able to sit, do a Bible story, and a long journaling time if our kids are little. It’ll create a frustrating time for them and you, and a precious time as a family would become a drudgery for everyone.

Teaching the Journaling Skills

When I teach journaling techniques, I think of three different ways to journal:

1. A brain dump
2. Praying scripture
3. The Taste and Seek prayer

Technique 1: Brain Dump

First, A brain dump is exactly what it sounds like. You dump the thoughts in your brain onto the paper. It doesn’t matter what it is, it all comes out. Why is this important?

This is important because what you’re teaching your child is how relational our God is.

Your child will build a foundation of prayer knowing that there is a God who loves them. There is a God who cares about their thoughts and feelings. There is a God who will walk with them through the valleys and on the mountaintops. God is a friend and a father. Think of the way your child walks up to you and just starts telling you a story. You may have no idea what she is telling you, but you listen because you love her.

God, in a similar way, does that with us. When we are talking with him about our day, a frustration, a brief “Help me today!”, or thanking him for a simple joy before us, we are building upon a relationship that reminds us how attentive our God is. Our children need to know that God is not distant nor aloof in the world. The brain dump is the simplest way to journal with kids.

Technique 2: Praying Scripture

Secondly, Praying Scripture is a beautiful technique to build critical thinking for our kids. It’s a technique that I teach adults and children how to do very differently. To journal with kids, I will use a Bible story to work from. We have a regular Bible and Breakfast time with our girls and we’ll read a variety of things from a catechism, to just reading a psalm, or reading out of a children’s Bible. When I am looking to practice praying scripture however, I will pick the very next Bible story we’re going to read.

Here’s what I’d do:

1. Read the next Bible story I was planning on reading.
2. Ask the child to tell you back the story.
3. Ask the child, what did you see God do?
4. What does that tell us about our God?

When I ask the child “what does that tell us about our God?” I’m asking my children to focus on his attributes. For example, we read the story of Elisha, a widow, and two sons. The widow was going to lose her two to a creditor if something didn’t change fast. Elisha told her to get as many jars as she could and fill them with oil. The miracle of the story is that she had very little oil and yet, she and her sons filled many jars. She was able to sell the jars, pay back her debts, and the remaining jars of oil were used as their income. The oil miraculously sustained them while they were filling their jars. Once the jars were filled, it stopped flowing.

If I asked you, “what did you see God do?” You could have many different responses. He provided. He protected. He sustained. He was omnipotent. He was fair. He was kind and gracious. You would respond to something the Holy Spirit is teaching you about God in that moment. You’d speak to his attributes. You’d be reminded of who he is.

When we ask our children to notice and reflect on who our God is, they will be able to trust and lean on a God who is strong and mighty. This adds another layer to their relationship foundation.

Let them draw/write what they saw God do. Let them reflect on how God can guide them in their lives based on the truth they’ve just learned.

Technique 3: Taste and Seek

The final technique is taste and seek. This prayer technique is very simple and yet probably the most difficult in showing how to journal with kids. It is a building a muscle of faith and also creating a vulnerable opportunity for you to talk about how God answers prayer. Maybe this is why prayer is so difficult for some because we don’t know what to do when God doesn’t answer prayers that we hope for. For some, especially when the prayer is about healing or provision in a miraculous way, if the answer isn’t the miraculous event we hope for, it can shatter our faith.

But we have to teach our kids to ask, seek, and knock. Our kids need to know that we can come to God with anything and trust in his sovereignty even when we don’t understand it. Here’s how to teach this technique:

1. write the date
2. write the prayer down
3. leave a line
4. when God answers, write the date he answers on the line you previously drew
5. then, write how God answered.
6. Write your response to his answer: are you happy? Frustrated? unsure? thrilled?

The taste and seek prayer teaches our children (and us if we’re totally transparent here), that we don’t know what God is going to do and we have to know at all times that he is going to walk with us. By keeping a record of answered prayers (even the ones we aren’t sure what to do with), we will remind our souls how our God hears us. We will have a written record of his faithfulness. How cool is that?

How to implement in real time

This is the nitty gritty of everything we’ve talked about, and getting your kids into the habit. We have a regular breakfast and Bible time in our morning. That’s when this would work. Maybe you talk about God at a different time of day. With the exception of the taste and seek technique, I would probably suggest trying the other styles during the day.

The first thing to do is have a journal! It can be a simple journal from the grocery store. Again, take a look at your child’s age. If your child is going to draw out their brain dumps or attributes of God, you could easily take a stack of printer paper at home, fold it in half or staple the corner, and create your own journal. The point is to keep this simple. Another fun way to journal with kids, is letting your kids or students decorate their journal. It creates a sense of ownership.

Then, choose a technique to try. Maybe for a brain dump, talk with your child about the things going on in her life. What is she excited about? Are there things she’s nervous? She might respond with “I don’t know”, but that’s ok too. It can take a little while to get the thoughts flowing. If this is the first time attempting this, be very patient and slow. let her take her time. As you practice brain dumping, it’ll become easier. Maybe pictures will be how she starts. The point again- is to help her connect with God. You’re giving her a way to do that. Try one of these pages to help practice writing or drawing responses.

If you’re focusing on a characteristic of God, start with stories. Even when I was reading the Elisha and widow story with my girls, I started making brand new connections I hadn’t thought of. I saw the whole gospel story in it that I hadn’t seen before and it blew my mind. With your children, go through the four questions above. Let them talk through their answers. Then, after the discussion, that’s the time for your child to write or draw what she learned about God. A big component of teaching how to journal with kids is giving them the ability to respond authentically and how the Holy Spirit is teaching them just like he teaches us.

If you have older children, ask them to reflect on what impact that particular characteristic could have in their lives. If God is just, how then should I act? If God is holy, what does holiness look like in my life? If God is generous, reflect on the posture of my heart. Am I generous or stingy?

Finally, with the taste and seek prayer, this is beautiful for any age. If you have a younger child, just practicing the habit of God’s faithfulness is necessary. For older children, learning to submit is a lesson that honestly, will never be mastered, but we can begin trusting and looking for God’s answers in our daily life.

The Taste and Seek journal is a great place to start with older children. Let them begin to chronicle their own faith stories so that when they are older, they will remember the faith and love of their youth.

No matter if the responses back to you are scribbles, narrations, or well developed paragraphs (or prayers kept privately), the most important gift in teaching prayer journaling is giving the skill for your child to connect with God. We are not in control of the relationship or even what the child will learn, but that’s between them and God. We are the facilitators.

After you have selected the journal, picked a technique, create the time to do it. For us, it’s easiest at breakfast. Have the journal ready to go at Bible time. Explain what it is and what you’ll be doing. Talk about the techniques and their names. Then, practice one of them.

Lastly, remember that you are doing a great job developing these skills in your children or students. To journal with kids can feel overwhelming, but it really doesn’t have to be. Keep entrusting them to God and let him do the rest.