• Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

Illustrated Ministry

Illustrated Resources for the Church & Home

  • About
  • For Churches
  • For Families
  • Products
    • Complete Catalog
    • Curriculum
      • Mini Revolutions Curriculum (based on the RCL)
      • Compassion Camp (VBS)
      • The Beatitudes: An Illustrated Curriculum
      • The Lord’s Prayer: An Illustrated Curriculum
      • An Illustrated Invitation: Joining God at Work in the World
      • An Illustrated Compassion: Learning to Love Like God
      • An Illustrated Earth: Celebrating God’s Creation
    • Illustrated Worship Resources
      • Summer 2022
      • Spring 2022
      • Winter 2021-2022
      • Fall 2021
    • Lent
      • Lent Resources
      • Family Lenten Devotionals
      • Lenten Devotionals
      • Lent & Easter Worship Videos
      • Virtual Easter Pageant
      • Coloring Posters
    • Advent
      • An Illustrated Advent for Families: God With Us
      • God With Us: An Illustrated Devotional
      • Do Not Be Afraid: A Christmas Pageant
      • Family Devotionals
      • Coloring Posters
    • Pentecost
      • Pentecost Coloring Page & Poster
      • Pentecost Coloring Page & Poster – Spanish-language Version
    • Coloring Pages & Posters
    • Illustrated Cards & Stickers
      • Greeting Cards
      • Stickers
      • 1.25″ Pinback Buttons
    • Spanish-Language Resources
  • Blog
    • Coloring Posters
    • Community Spotlight
    • Curriculum
    • Faith Formation
    • Family Ministry
    • Outreach & Mission
    • Product Updates
    • Reviews
    • Sunday School
    • Tutorials
    • Worship
  • FB Group
  • Contact Us
    • Frequently Asked Questions
    • Licensing Terms
    • Multi-Entity License Request Form
    • Submit Product Ideas
    • We’re Hiring!
  • SHOP
You are here: Home / Archives for Top 10

Top 10

10 Ways to Pray with Kids

Alissa Ellett 10 Comments

10 Ways to Pray with Kids
FREE BOOKMARK: We have a special gift for you. One of the prayer ideas below is a 5-Finger Prayer, and we have created a unique printable bookmark for you to use with your family, or perhaps you’d want to email it out to families in your church or community. If you would like to download it, click here.
FAMILY RESOURCE ON PRAYER: If you want to check out a brand new resource on prayer, be sure and look into An Illustrated Lent for Families: Reflections on Prayer. You can check it out and download a FREE sample here.

10 Ways to Pray with Kids

Discovering ways to pray with children offers them space for connection with God and, not surprisingly, has been shown to improve well-being time and again. Consequently, we give our children an invaluable and timeless gift when we teach them how to pray. Additionally, it’s a gift they can carry with them throughout all of life. At ICM, we think this is so important we compiled a list of 10 ways to pray with kids. Pick and choose, mix and match any way you’d like.

Pray Through Art

Coloring Prayer: First, gather coloring utensils and coloring sheets. Second, decide what you’ll pray for with each color. For example, use purple while praying aloud for animals, green for family members, blue for the Earth and the environment. Tailor the categories to your own family or classroom. (Also, looking for some fresh coloring sheets? Grab a free sample pack here!)

Ways to Pray with Kids

Prayer in Song: One of the easiest ways to teach children to pray is through singing. There are several options out there. The doxology is one song used as a prayer of praise and thanksgiving. The lyrics are as follows:

Praise God from whom all blessings flow.
Praise God all creatures here below.
Praise God above ye heavenly host.
Praise Father/Mother, Son and Holy Ghost.
Amen.

Prayer Journal: Invite your children to begin drawing and writing their prayers to God. Even little ones can draw their prayers. For those who are older, they may want to write letters to God. Additionally, giving children a prompt can offer needed structure. Perhaps encourage them to write God about their hopes for the coming school year.

Pray Using Your Body

Prayer through Movement: There are several ways to pray with kids that teach how their minds and bodies communicate with God. So, try this simple prayer below, especially useful for the kinesthetic learner. Additionally, yoga and dance are great options that can be done with children of all ages.

(3 deep breaths)
God, you are above (reach toward the sky), below (touch your toes), inside (hands to heart) and all around (big arm circles).
I worship you (reach toward the sky), and give my life to you (touch your toes).
And I love you (hands to heart) with all that I am (big arm circles).
(3 deep breaths)

Five-Finger Prayer: Developed by Pope Francis, this prayer practice assigns each finger something to pray for. The thumb is for those closest to us. The index finger for those who teach, instruct and heal us. The middle finger, our tallest, is for our leaders. The ring finger, our weakest, for those who are weak. The pinky is for ourselves. Click here to download your free printable bookmark version of this prayer.

Pray Through Conversation

Fill in the Blank Prayer:  Take turns going back and forth or from person to person, if you’re in a group, saying, “God is great, God is good, thank you God for ______________.” See how long you can keep it going. It’s fun (and sometimes breathtaking) to hear what your children say. Discussing what is inside our hearts and minds with each other is a crucial way to build relationships. Consequently, this practice builds both relationships with God and with each other.

Prayer Walk: Go for a walk together in search for the things you’re thankful to God for. Sidewalks, trees, bird songs, smiles from other pedestrians, flowers in bloom, passing cars and buses that make travel possible. So much to appreciate! Additionally, this is an excellent way to get outside, slow down the mind and get active together.

Pray Through Silence

Centering Prayer: Pray silently in this way to empty the mind and become open to God’s presence. Young children can struggle to sit quietly and still since their bodies often desire movement and activity. Therefore, two to five minutes can be plenty for young elementary children to start with. Now, for older children, try up to ten minutes once they’re acclimated to the practice. First, invite them to close their eyes and imagine that they are standing in a forest along the side of a stream. Second, explain that when a thought comes into their minds, they can imagine the thought landing on a leaf, floating down onto the surface of the stream and away until it’s out of view.

Ways to Pray with Kids

Breath Prayer: First, choose a word or brief phrase to repeat in one breath. Now, if it’s a phrase, say one part on the inhale and one part on the exhale. For example, invite your children to think in their minds or whisper to themselves Psalm 56:3. Next, on the inhale, think or say “When I am afraid.” Then, on the exhale, think or say “I will trust you.” Repeating breath prayers is a meditative practice that can be done with children of almost any age.

Scripture Prayer: First, choose a Bible verse and use it as a prayer to begin and end each day with your children. Try John 3:18, Psalm 46:1 or Romans 15:13. Additionally, it may be helpful to have it posted by their bed to read together.

Ways to Pray with Children

Tell Us Your Prayer Ideas for Kids

Phew, that was a lot to take in! We hope this has given you a few ways to pray with kids that help cultivate spiritual growth and connection. Also, how do you and your kids pray? We’d love to hear in the comments below!

Five Finger Prayer

Top 10 Lessons Learned from my First Product Launch

Adam Walker Cleaveland 1 Comment

November was the first major product launch of Illustrated Ministry. To say everything went smoothly would be…well, it’d be a major understatement. But I definitely learned a lot and wanted to share some of that with you. So, here are my Top 10 Lessons Learned from my First Product Launch (in no particular order).

1. Make an educated guess about how long you think it will take to create your product. And then double that.

What I needed was a production calendar. I wrote down everything that I needed to do, all of the illustrations I needed to draw, but I just didn’t think through how long everything would take. Case in point: I spent four hours drawing the three wise men. Now, I really like how they turned out, but did they need to take four hours? Nope. Was I planning on them taking fours? Definitely not.

I also didn’t take into account just how long it would take to put everything together once it was all done. Formatting the documents, getting all of the files in the formats I wanted them in and just organizing everything. So, make a guess and then double it. And that should be closer to being somewhat realistic.

2. Expect problems.

I don’t think I was expecting problems. So when I began to encounter them – it kind of freaked me out. Staples was a little late getting me my order of 125 sets (625 sheets of 4’x3′ posters) and when I went to pick up the 6 cases of packed poster tubes, I was so frustrated to find that they all had a dark black line on the bottom of the poster. Someone at the production center apparently didn’t load the paper correctly. So, it took almost another week to get all of the posters reprinted and delivered to me.

I couldn’t have prepared for that, but realizing that things like that are just probably going to happen…it will help you deal with them a little bit better.

3. If you’re shipping something, do your research and know all of your options.

After this initial product launch, I almost want to stick to strictly digital product launches in the future. Having an actual physical item to ship added SO MUCH time to everything. Getting all of the supplies, driving them to the post office and just dealing with all of it was more work than I had imagined. I did some research into the best way to ship, and I thought that the USPS would be the best way and most economical.

I can’t say that I would have chosen something different initially, but I wish I did a little more research. And even if I had still chosen the USPS, I didn’t realize that I could schedule pickups from the post office. I knew you could do that with UPS, but that would have saved me a lot of time and hassle and who knows, maybe the post office wouldn’t have lost 30 of my poster tubes if I had done that…?

Product Launch

4. Don’t use the USPS.

For now, I’m sticking with UPS. Maybe the USPS is better when it’s not November/December and I may try again with packages that aren’t poster tubes, but I feel much better about UPS (although I’m sure that there are plenty of people with horror stories about the UPS as well…).

5. Support local businesses…when it makes sense.

I’m all for supporting local small businesses. Hell, I’m now a small business. But I don’t think it always makes sense. I definitely buy almost all of my stuff with Amazon – and that is primarily because of the prices and the convenience.

In searching for a printer for my posters, I met with a small shop in Evanston, and they initially thought they could give me a much better price than Staples. However, Staples was able to meet their price AND they were willing to print, collate, roll, stuff the posters and tape up the poster tubes. I couldn’t turn that down. And I was supporting a local Staples store – and I was developing some good relationships with the staff and managers of the store.

Especially when you’re starting out with a new business, I think there are just some things that make more sense to get from a large provider who can give you the type of savings and deals that you might need as you get started.

6. Contrary to popular opinion, all-nighters are not super helpful or productive.

I only pulled one legitimate all-nighter, and honestly, it was the first all-nighter I’ve ever done. The latest I stayed up in college was 4am working on an art project. But I thought I could finish up everything I needed to do in one all-nighter. NO WAY.

And then I was absolutely exhausted the next two days. So it was not very productive for me. It probably also didn’t help that my almost 4-yr old son was having problems sleeping and kept walking into the office and scaring the heck out of me!

All-Nighters-with-a-3-year-old

7. Starbucks Refreshers.

If you do need to pull an all-nighter, let me suggest the Via Refreshers – Strawberry Lemonade. They’re not necessarily the best thing you’ve ever had to drink – but they definitely contain a pretty serious boost in “natural” caffeine. I had two servings of that drink from 10pm-6am and it totally did the job.

8. Get help. No, seriously. Get help.

I needed help. And lots of it. Even just slapping mailing labels on tubes – it would have gone so much faster if I’d had a few friends help me out – or gotten some of the youth from Sarah’s church to make a few bucks and help out.

There’s no shame in asking for help.

Thankfully, I did have help through this amazing community that I’m apart of called Fizzle. I joined this group at the end of the summer at the recommendation of my good friend Kevin (who is also an amazing coach if you’re looking for someone!), and it’s been such a worthwhile $35/month for me. The forum alone has been a huge resource for me. It’s been the place where I could go and share issues I was running into, get support and encouragement, and just have people who have been through launching a business before to talk with.

9. Pay a little extra to make your life easier.

If it comes down to saving a few bucks, or paying a little more to simply make your life a bit easier…pay a little extra. I’m trying to imagine how long it would have taken me to collate, roll and stuff all of the poster sets that I had…and I was actually thinking about doing it myself for a little bit. Next month for An Illustrated Lent, I plan to hire a few people to help me simply get the stuff out the door. Sure, that will cut into the profits from the resources, but I think it will make it a lot easier for me, and it will probably be fun too.

10. Show your work!

I’m a big fan of Austin Kleon’s book Share Your Work. As I was going through the process of drawing the illustrations, shipping poster tubes and everything else in between, I made good use of Instagram to share the process of the creation of the products. It also allowed people who were getting interested in what I was doing to see a little behind the scenes, and get a feel for what this was going to turn into.

Those are my Top 10 Lessons Learned from my First Product Launch. You probably have your own lessons – and I’d love for you to share those in the comment section below.

Product-BehindTheScenes

Footer

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Phone
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Copyright © 2022 Illustrated Ministry, LLC. All rights reserved. Licensing Terms.