Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This post contains an affiliate links; thanks for your support!

 

Life with kids is hard. Take all your imperfections and habits and get rid of the filter between your brain and your mouth and you have your kids.  Or maybe that’s just me…

77 ways to pray with your kids Catholic family prayer

Think about how difficult it is to pray on your own. I don’t know about you, but I drag my feet, put it off, and whine in my head before I even start. Once I’ve gotten started my mind wanders to my to do list, conversations I had or things I messed up.

Lucky for me, God’s grace is abundant! I cannot make my children love God, but God showers his abundant grace and amplifies my meager efforts at family prayer. We do some of the Catholic basics, such as grace before meals and bedtime prayers. I want my children to have a deeper understanding of their Catholic faith and a better relationship with God than I have.

I saw a review of the book 77 Ways to Pray with Your Kids somewhere and immediately emailed the publisher. This is such a fabulous resource! I think every Catholic family should have one. It’s like a menu of prayer for Catholics of all ages.

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The first several sections talk about how & when to pray, as well as provide information about how to use the book. The real benefit of this book is the ~60 pages of ways to pray with your kids. There are dozens of ideas shared in very short, succinct articles along with appropriate ages – 3+, 7+, 13+. In addition, many ideas include an indicator that they are easy to do and require no preparation to try them.

Jerry Windley-Daoust does a fabulous job of taking a multitude of Catholic traditions and making them accessible to modern, busy, Catholic families. And some options even point you to the Catechism and the Bible to find out more. It also includes major Catholic prayers. While reading the book, I wrote down a whole list of page numbers I wanted to try (pages 21, 22, 28, 32, 34, 48, 57, 60 & 70 if you were curious ;D).

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The best part, though, is the index/checklist at the back. I love it for many reasons. First, it includes a short title for every prayer and related option. This is awesome because if you just want something quick to try, you can just scan the list. It lists the pages so if you can’t recall the details or want more help, you can find the full article. You can also check off any prayers you’ve tried.

If you are trying to figure out how to prayer with your overwhelming group of littles (and let’s be honest, ONE can be an overwhelming group!), 77 Ways to Pray with Your Kids is an awesome resource. The beginning has so much encouragement for this tough job of meeting God with your little ones. He provides much Grace and multiples your efforts more than imaginable. This would also be a fabulous book for families with older kids who feel like things are getting a bit stale or who have children entering a new phase of maturity. This excellent resource will be shared with all my Catholic friends.

Interested in supporting their work? The publisher, Peanut Butter & Grace, has a IndieGoGo campaign to help provide the cost of publishing more of the books in their series. I wish I had the means to write a big fat check, because making awesome, practical and wholly Catholic books available is one of my passions. Instead, I’m writing a small one (bah, it closed while I was waiting for payday…I guess I need to buy a few extra copies ;D), buying several copies and sharing the word!

Will you join me?

Jen S.

1 Comment on A Menu of Options for Praying With Your Kids {Book Review}

  1. Jerry Windley-Daoust
    18 April 2015 at 10:29 PM (9 years ago)

    Thanks for the review, Jen — I’m glad you found the book helpful, because we’re working on follow ups around celebrating grace (Catholic traditions, liturgical celebrations, sacraments), talking about God with your kids (e.g., home catechesis), and loving God and neighbor (service).

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