An easy, beautiful way to build your child’s friendship with God

There’s no better feeling than when you see your kids choosing to pray and spend time with God of their own volition. 

My kids are young, so this is just barely starting to happen around here, but it brings me so much joy! 

Two of my kids have declared the corner of their bedroom where we hung images of their patron saints “the prayer corner,” and another likes to remind me to ask St. Anthony for help whenever we can’t find something. 

One little thing I do in our home to build my kids’ friendship with God is introduce songs that are prayers. We sing the hymns we hear in church, of course, and I love to sing songs from the atrium, too. 

Lately my kids are really loving the song "Thank You, Lord." What makes this song really special is that you can change the words to include whatever it is you want to thank God for that day.

Here are the lyrics:

Gratitude is one of the most foundational ways to pray. It’s also really important: Learning to thank God every day not only helps us notice God’s “blessings without number and mercies without end” but also makes us happier (yes, really!).

Saying thanks to God creates a lifelong habit of joy and thanksgiving that really can transform us for the better. And by thanking God in an easy-to-remember and personalizable song, my kids learn to thank God throughout the day. 

Usually we sing this song every night before bed, and I encourage the kids to add anything they’re thankful for that day to the song.

Recently my two-year-old likes to sing the song thanking God for each of her siblings, herself, and “dragons” (the name she has for lizards, which she loves for some unfathomable reason).

My eight-year-old likes to thank God for fun things like pizza and ice cream, which we can all be grateful for!

And my two middle daughters do my very favorite thing of all: They like to sing “Thank you, Lord, for giving us Mommy,” which honestly brings tears to my eyes.

Of course, you don’t need this song to build a great habit of gratitude and friendship with God. But it's an easy way to encourage those things, and this little song has brought a lot of joy to my family and me. I hope you like it too!