The Doodle Prayer | How to Pray with Doodles

The doodle prayer is a creative prayer method that I have come to love.  It’s simple.  It’s creative.  (I know, I said that already.)  It’s colourful.  And it helps my mind to calm down during prayer and focus.

This prayer is great to do in a prayer journal, on a scrap of paper, or – if you’re feeling really creative and courageous – in sidewalk chalk when the weather’s nice.  (Can you tell that I usually pray with small kids and teenagers?)

How to Do The Doodle Prayer

The doodle prayer is super simple and is basically what it sounds like: doodling.

This type of prayer works really well for…

• petitionary prayer (write down all the things that you would like God’s help and guidance with)

But it can also work for…

• thanksgiving (write down what you’re thankful for and then make it pretty)
• confession (though I’m not really sure how I’d feel about writing down and decorating my faults…)
• and adoration or worship (that’s basically what Bible colouring books are).

How to Do the Doodle Prayer

I’m going to give you a breakdown of the doodle prayer for petitionary prayer (asking for things), but you can add in any other elements that you would like.

1. Write out your prayer.  This doesn’t have to be in full.  Writing names of people for whom who have a responsibility to pray, and snippets of situations where you need divine help and guidance, is more than enough.

2. Doodle around your prayers.  Draw pictures.  Colour in some words.  Make cutesy borders.  Use stickers if you have them available.

The point of this prayer is not to show off your art skills.  If you can’t draw a house, or a baby, or a job (how do you draw a job?!) to save your life, then don’t worry.

Doodling your prayers can be as simple as adding colour to words, underlining, drawing borders, etc.  The goal is not necessarily to make your prayers pretty.  The goal is to keep your mind focused on the person or the situation at hand as you pray.  Colouring and drawing can help you do that.

3. Place your hand over each prayer in turn and lift that person or situation up to God.  Ask for his presence.  And give yourself a few moments of silence after each prayer.

Done.  Amen.

That’s the doodle prayer, in a nutshell: Write out some snippets of people and things that you want to pray for.  Get as creative as you’d like.  Lift each one up to God.

Why I Love the Doodle Prayer

I have to be honest with you: the doodle prayer fulfills some deep emotional need in me.  I think it’s the task-oriented creative part of me that finds fulfillment in this prayer.

• It’s simple and easy to do.  It’s easy to teach to others as well.
• It appeals to us task-oriented folks: write something down.  Colour it in.  Move on to the next one.  And there’s tangible evidence of your accomplished prayers.
• It gives my mind something to focus on.  This is a big one for me.  In the sit-quietly-and-talk-to-God kind of prayer, my mind wanders.  Sometimes really far away down twisty forest paths.  The task of writing something down and drawing or colouring around it gives me one thing to do, and one thing only.  It helps keep me on task.
• It appeals to the creative types.  This is a great prayer for youth groups, Sunday schools, and family prayer time if you have anyone who gets deep emotional satisfaction from making something pretty, or from colouring in general.  I have those people all over my life.