Teach Me to Pray: Praying God's Word from A to Z

by Kristen Wetherell

An Alphabetical Collection of Heartfelt Prayers for Kids

Prayer is a beautiful way to tell God about everything we're going through. But when emotions run high or life gets overwhelming, it can be tough to find the right words. Teach Me to Pray offers children a rich collection of prayers designed to help them better understand the world, express their feelings to God, and use their Bible in prayer.

Organized alphabetically, this book guides children through key topics from a biblical perspective―including anger, confession, envy, friendship, gossip, healing, identity, justice, and more. Perfect for individual, family, and church contexts, each engaging reading features a memory verse, a short devotion, relevant follow-up verses, and a heartfelt prayer. With this accessible resource, the next generation is better equipped to build a solid biblical foundation while learning to love God and others more deeply.

Written for Kids Ages 8–12: Features straightforward language, rhyming prayers, and simple teaching to keep kids engaged
Topical: Addresses a wide variety of topics including anger, confession, envy, friendship, gossip, healing, identity, justice, and more
A to Z Framework: Encyclopedic structure makes it easy for children and parents to find a specific emotion or topic for prayer
Versatile: Perfect for morning devotionals, family meals, Sunday school, homeschool, bedtime routines, or whenever the Spirit leads

Genres: Christian Living

112 pages, Hardcover

Published October 21, 2025

Reviews

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

First sentence: Anger
O God, I'm so angry!I feel so upset!
You're slow to be angry. Don't let me forget!
You're patient with me, and you're gentle and kind.
Your mercy surrounds me before and behind.
In light of your tenderness, help me to see
How slowness to anger can also mark me.
Lord, help me to listen, and then help me to speak.
To use self-control doesn't mean that I'm weak.
I thank you that Christ bore your wrath in my place.
My anger's forgiven, for I've received grace.
In Jesus's name I pray, Amen.

Teach Me to Pray is a an alphabetical, topical prayer book. Each topical prayer includes a RHYMING prayer, a Scripture verse, a mini-devotion, and suggested application. For example, for the anger topic, it states, "Have you been sinfully angry toward someone lately? Confess your anger to God, ask for his forgiveness and help, and then apologize to the person you hurt."

I believe there are fifty-two topics in all. Each topic is concise.

Here's another example of the prayer style.

Temptation
Dear Father in heaven, temptation is hard.
Please help me to flee it and be on my guard!
My heart is deceitful. My enemy's strong.
But you are my strength, my salvation, my song.
Please always provide an escape I can take
When temptation invites like that slippery snake.
Please help me to see the destruction sin makes,
That sin never gives--only kills, wrecks, and takes.
O Lord, you were tempted and tried, just like me;
And now you're my hope to stand firm and to flee.
In Jesus's name I pray, Amen.

I do truly like the idea of the book. I like the idea of topical prayer books OR topical devotional books. I'm not sure it had to be alphabetical. But I don't have a problem with it being alphabetical either.

IF the goal is to teach children and middle schoolers HOW to pray on their own, this might not be the absolute best fit. I'm not sure that is the goal. I personally found the choice to have all the prayers in this prayer book RHYME to be a little odd. I don't know that rhyming in prayers is something we should strive for or seek out. If the mind is focused on rhyming, then the mind isn't exactly focused on God, on talking with God.

[Jennie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful new book about teaching children how to pray and more. This is one book you need for your family and would also be great to give as a gift (think Christmas present). There are 52 prayers going through each letter of the alphabet to learn about feelings, obedience, mistakes, friendship, and more. Each prayer is biblically based! Plus the illustrations done in this book are great to catch children of all ages attention.

These are prayers that children will want to read through again and again. You could also use this book to help with memorizing, as there is rhyming throughout the prayers. It would be great to use for younger children learning the alphabet. In addition to each prayer, there is a Scripture to read that goes with the prayer topic, a section to think more on it, an action point to do something about, along with additional Scripture to look up and read. So this is great for older children to learn biblical application. This would be a great addition to morning time or a nightly devotion time. This is definitely a book I will use with my family!

While this book is geared towards younger aged children, I feel it is something you could use together as a family with children of all ages, as the lessons in the Think About It section are short, but deep and beneficial to all ages. Reading through this book, I even found it encouraging and helpful. Each day is a short read, but deep application, so this is great when you have days that are busy.

If you know me, you know I always will recommend anything from Crossway. So thank you Crossway for another great resource that will be helpful and encouraging.

[Emily Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

So many of us were never taught how to pray — just that we should.

This book meets parents right there.

This newest release from Kristen Wetherell is just lovely and so easy to use with children. Aimed at age 8+ it uses an ‘A-Z’ format that covers a variety of topics that child will commonly need to pray about. These include a range of behaviours and emotions (anger, self control, nervousness etc) & issues they will face in society and the Christian life (church, missions, orphans, decisions etc).

Each topic is broken down into a ‘Teach me to Pray’ section with a scriptural rooted prayer. It gives scripture and verse references so children can see what the Bible actually teaches on the topic and a ‘Think about section’ which helps
them think through how they may experience that particular situation in their daily life. It ends with a ‘Do Something About it’ with a call to application.

There’s so much I appreciate about this book; the beautiful illustrations that draw kids in, the rich scriptural basics and God centered focus, and such a wide range of topics covered that gives a helpful and practical framework for how to approach these topics in prayer.


Thanks to crossway for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Emily Waits (emilylovesreading_) · Rating 5 out of 5]

{Thank you to @crosswaybooks and @netgalley for my complementary copy of this title. All opinions are my own.}

I absolutely adored this soon-to-be-released devotional about prayer. Going from A to Z, the author writes lyrical prayer on a topic corresponding to the letter, followed by a brief discussion of the topic, scripture references, and an action step.

This title is written for children 8-12 in mind, but I think it could be used and beneficial for younger children as well. I did several entries with my five-year-old, and he was engaged, understood, and enjoyed the content. Definitely not for independent reading under the target age, but could easily be utilized as a family.

I love that this devotional engages children and helps them to view different emotions and situations from a biblical perspective and teaches them to come to God in prayer in regards to these feelings.

Highly recommend!