This simple prayer for my family is written for those moments when you want to bring your household before God but cannot find the words yourself. Pray it in the morning before the day begins, at the dinner table, or at bedtime when the house finally goes quiet. You can read it aloud exactly as written, or use it as a starting point and speak in your own words where your family needs something more specific.
Simple Prayer for My Family
Lord, thank you for the people you have placed in my home. You know each of them by name, and you know the things they carry that I cannot always see. Give us patience with one another when tempers run short, and soften our hearts when we hurt each other. Help the children grow in kindness and honesty, and help my spouse and me to be steady examples of your love, even on the days we feel we are failing.
Watch over our health and our safety, especially when we are apart. Be with the ones who are sick, the ones who are anxious about school or work, and the ones who are carrying grief that no one else has noticed. Provide what we need for each day, and teach us to be grateful for what we already have. Keep our home open to you, so that when we come through the door tired or troubled, we remember that you are already there. Draw each of us closer to you, and let our family be a place where your peace can rest. Amen.
A Shorter Version to Pray in a Moment
Father, protect my family today. Guard the ones who are leaving the house, and the ones who are staying behind. Give us patience, gentleness and honest words, and forgive us where we have failed each other. Hold each of us in your care, and let us feel your nearness wherever we go. Amen.
Scriptures to Pray Alongside
Psalm 127:1
Unless the LORD builds the house, they labor in vain who build it. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchman guards it in vain.
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Pray this verse when you feel that your family’s safety and direction depend entirely on your own effort. Ask God to build the household with his hands, and to remind you that you are not carrying it alone.
Joshua 24:15
If it seems evil to you to serve the LORD, choose today whom you will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”
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Read this verse as a family commitment. Pray that each person in your home will choose to serve the Lord, and that you as parents will lead by example in daily life.
Colossians 3:12-14
12 Put on therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, a heart of compassion, kindness, lowliness, humility, and perseverance; 13 bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, if any man has a complaint against any; even as Christ forgave you, so you also do. 14 Above all these things, walk in love, which is the bond of perfection.
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Use this passage when conflict has crept into the house. Ask God to clothe each family member in compassion, patience and forgiveness, and to bind everything together with love.
Ephesians 6:4
You fathers, don’t provoke your children to wrath, but nurture them in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
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Pray this verse for the way you speak to and teach your children. Ask for wisdom to correct without provoking, and to raise them in the training and instruction of the Lord.
Philippians 4:6-7
6 In nothing be anxious, but in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus.
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Bring your family’s worries to God through this passage. Ask him to replace the anxiety in your home with a peace that guards hearts and minds, even when answers are slow in coming.
How to Pray This Prayer
Many families find that the evening meal or the drive to school works well for this prayer, because everyone is already together and nobody is rushing off. Let each person name one thing they want God to hold for them, then read the prayer aloud, pausing after each paragraph so that the children can add their own requests. Keeping a hand on a shoulder or holding hands around the table gives younger ones something to focus on while they listen.
If you are praying alone while your family sleeps or works elsewhere, sit in a quiet chair and keep a list of names beside you. Read the prayer slowly, speaking each family member’s name as you come to the part about them. Your spouse, a grandparent, or a friend from church can also agree to pray the same words on the same day, so that your household is lifted up together even when you are in different rooms.
A Blessing to Close
May the Lord bless this family and keep each one of them safe. May he make his face shine upon them and give them peace in every season. May the love of God settle over this home like a warm light, and may every person who lives here know they are known, held and cherished.
