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As a mum, you’re probably familiar with hectic days; those days where your kids ask your attention non-stop.
At best, your house may look like a pigsty. Your laundry basket still sits in the same spot it did 3 days ago (‘did it grow?’).
In the late afternoon, your husband waltzes in complaining he had ‘such a busy day at work’. And bedtime just seems like a never-ending battle.
By the end of the day, you must admit that – again – you were too busy to pray.
The dream of committing to a daily prayer life has to wait yet another day. Or does it?
Why We Need a Daily Prayer Life (Especially as a Busy Mum)
How many times do we wake up saying: ‘I have so much to do that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer’?
Probably not that often, or we wouldn’t be secretly ‘kicking’ ourselves for not praying more. Right?
But these wise words were said by Martin Luther. Okay, okay… I get it. He clearly wasn’t a busy mum! But still, he had a point – a very good point.
We often think that we’re too busy for a daily prayer life when in fact prayer can help us out tremendously! Sometimes we just need to come up with effective prayer strategies as busy mums. But before that, we need to create some easy steps to get started.
If we take time to pray every day, we’ll see God’s hand in everything we do. He deserves our attention first thing of the day!
Even if it’s just 5 minutes a day, it’s better than not praying at all.
7 Easy Steps to Start Your Daily Prayer Life
So let’s have a look at some different ways you can start implementing a daily prayer life into your routine.
1. Keep Your Prayers Short
A good way to kick start your daily prayer life, is to keep your prayers short.
You don’t need to sit on your knees for 30 minutes on end whenever you pray. That thought by itself is probably enough to give up on prayer all together – especially when you’re a busy mum.
Start small – short and sweet – and you’ll soon discover that your prayers will grow from there.
Don’t know exactly what to pray for in just a few minutes? Start by saying thanks to the Lord and praise Him.
2. Praise God in Prayer
Oh, how great and wonderful is our God! How mighty and faithful! He deserves our praise and thanksgiving.
We often praise Him in songs, but we can also praise Him in our prayers. Praise Him for all the blessings, for His promises, His grace, His mercy… Even for the lessons and trials He helps us through.
Not only should we praise Him during the sunny days. No! The gloomy days need praise and prayer even more. Praise and prayer lift us up to God. Let’s praise Him as much as we can! You’ll be amazed at how this changes your daily prayer life.
‘And a voice came out of the throne, saying, Praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear him, both small and great’ (Rev 19:5 KJV)
3. Start the Day With Morning Prayer
Not exactly sure when would be the right time for prayer? I’ve discovered that praying first thing in the morning is a huge blessing for me.
My days used to start in a hectic way: my then 2 year old would have amazing tantrums for nothing, I’d be running around like a headless chicken doing a million tasks in one go, and my husband looked like he couldn’t get to work quick enough (lol!).
I then decided enough was enough! If all of us are able to wake up earlier to please our boss (or any other person), surely we should be able to get up early for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
So that’s when I started to get out of bed before anybody else in the household. And the first moments of the day, I spent in prayer with Jesus.
Like a miracle, my family began the day in calmness and peace! No more tantrums, no more frustration, no more chaos. What a difference morning prayer made for us!
4. Pray Before Meals
Another great way to start creating a daily prayer life is by praying before every meal.
If you’re not used to this yet, it might take some time to create the habit, but you’ll get there.
Praying before meals is just another way of saying thanks, really. Even Jesus said thanks before breaking bread and taking a cup (Matt 15:36, 26:27).
And since we all want to follow His example, prayer before meals is a great way to start praying every day.
5. Create Family Prayer Time
Really, if you start including the above step, you’re already on your way to start your own family prayer time.
In our family, we pray together at the table and right before bedtime as well. Sometimes just one of us will say a prayer aloud, other times each of us will speak in turns.
The most essential part to this step is obviously… family.
Every family member should try to join this special prayer time. Why? Because ‘where two or three are gathered together in [Jesus’] name, there is [He] in the midst of them’ (Matt 18:20 KJV). Glorious!
Related Post: Praying for Wisdom in Raising Our Children
6. Keep a Prayer Journal
Initially, you might think that keeping a prayer journal is too time-consuming to even bother doing.
And I guess, depending on how detailed and creative you go about keeping a journal, it could be true for some. However, a prayer journal can also help you to keep track of what to pray for. Creating a prayer journal can actually be really easy!
For example, you can write down a short list of people/things to pray for and change the topic each day. This way, your prayers can be focused, to-the-point, and still cover the people/things you’d like to pray for.
You can also look for some short prayer examples, print them (or write them down), and stick them into your journal.
Doing this can be extremely helpful if you’re new to prayer and not quite sure how to pray yet, and of course… when you feel you’re too busy to pray.
7. Pray Before Bedtime
Finally, to finish your day… pray before bedtime.
As I mentioned before, this is a time when we pray with our family. We say thanks for the blessings throughout the day and ask for protection at night. Then my 3 year old hops into bed.
It’s a great opportunity to go to Christ and wind down, one that only takes a few minutes of your time.
Before I go to bed myself, I’ll spend some time with God as well. It can be a longer prayer or short… it doesn’t matter; as long as your prayer’s sincere. Here are 5 really fun ways you can pray at night!
These are my 7 steps you can start trying to have a daily prayer life as a busy mum.
Begin with one and build it up from there. Don’t feel like you have to do them all at once! Step by step, little by little, and soon you’ll discover you have plenty of time to pray after all!
One more tip before I go. If you realise at the end of the day that you forgot to pray, pray then and there and ask for God to help you remember. It may sound silly, but that’s exactly what I did!
I prayed to God to help me remember to pray and fit daily prayer life into my life. And you know what? He answered! Thank You, Lord.
