A prayer

prayer for family

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A prayer for family brings God the people you call your own and asks for what a home most needs: protection, patience, forgiveness and love that lasts through hard seasons. It does not ask God to make anyone change on command. It asks him to work in each heart, beginning with your own. The passages behind these prayers speak of a household turned toward God, of bearing with one another, and of God giving the lonely a home.

Also in this set: 26 Bible Verses About Family

Prayers by situation

A daily prayer for your family

Lord, I bring you the people I call family this morning, by name and one at a time. You know where each of them is today and what each is carrying, much of which I will never hear about. Watch over them in the places I cannot reach. Give them what they need for today: rest for the tired, courage for the anxious, patience for the stretched thin. Make our home, wherever it is, a place where kindness is ordinary. And help me be easy to live with, quick to listen and slow to take offence. Amen.

A prayer to pray together as a family

God, we come to you together, just as we are. Thank you for this home and for each person in it, including the ones who are hard to love today. Forgive us for the ways we have hurt each other this week, and help us forgive one another. Keep us safe, give us what we need, and make us generous with what we have. Teach us to laugh easily, apologise quickly and listen well. Let your love be what holds us together when nothing else does. Amen.

When there is tension at home

God, the atmosphere at home is tight right now. Small things turn into arguments, and we are saying things we do not mean, or not saying things that need saying. I do not want to keep score. Colossians speaks of bearing with one another and forgiving, and I need help with both. Calm my temper before it speaks. Show me where I am part of the problem, and give me the humility to say so first. Soften what has hardened between us. Help us find our way back to being on the same side.

When you are estranged from family

Lord, there is a distance between me and someone in my family, and it has lasted longer than I ever expected. Some days I miss them. Some days I am relieved, and then I feel guilty about that. You know what happened and what each of us did. Where I need to own something, show me. Where reconciliation is possible and safe, open a door and give me the courage to walk through it. Where it is not, give me a peace that does not depend on their answer. Hold them, even when I cannot.

For the children and young people in your family

God, I am praying for the children and young people in my family, whether I am raising them or watching from a little further off. You know their fears, their friendships and the pressures they do not put into words. Protect them from harm and from the voices that tell them they are worthless. Let them know they are loved, at home and by you. Give the adults around them patience and wisdom. Help faith reach them in ordinary conversations, the way Deuteronomy describes, rather than only in lectures.

For parents or relatives growing older

Lord, the people who once looked after me are getting older, and I am watching their strength change. Some of it frightens me. Give them dignity at every stage, good care, and company that does not make them feel like a burden. Give me patience when conversations repeat and wisdom when decisions get hard. Help the rest of the family share the load fairly, and keep old resentments from surfacing at the worst moment. Let the time we still have together be kind. And when I do not know what to do next, show me.

When your family is going through a crisis

God, our family is in a hard season. Illness, money, work, news that has shaken all of us at once. Everyone is coping differently, and we keep missing each other. Hold us together when stress pulls us apart. Give the person at the centre of this what they most need, and give the rest of us the sense to offer it. Provide what we lack. Send the right help and the right people. I do not know how this ends. I am asking you to be with us in the middle of it.

For family members who do not share your faith

Lord, there are people in my family I love deeply who do not believe what I believe, or who have walked away from it. I want to pray for them without turning them into a project. Draw them to yourself in your way and your time. Keep me from preaching when I should be listening, and from hiding my faith out of fear. Let my life at home show more of your kindness than my words could. And let them know my love for them does not depend on them agreeing with me.

When your family is far away

God, the people I love are spread out, across towns or countries, and I cannot be there for the ordinary days or the hard ones. I miss being in the room. Be present with them where I cannot be. Watch over their homes, their health and their journeys. Help us stay close across the distance: to call when we say we will, to remember the dates that matter, to notice when someone has gone quiet. When I feel helpless, remind me that prayer is one way I can still reach them.

When family is something you are missing

Lord, prayers for family are hard for me. The family I have is broken, or gone, or was never safe, and the word itself aches. You know that. Psalm 68 speaks of you giving the lonely a home, and I am asking for that. Bring people into my life who feel like family, and help me recognise them when they come. Heal what I still carry from the home I grew up in. Let me know that I belong to you, whatever my family has or has not been.

How do I pray for my family?

Start simply: name each person to God and ask for what they need today. You do not have to know everything going on in their lives to pray for them well. Many people find it helps to pray for protection, for patience in the home, and for their own part in it, since the person praying is the one heart they can actually offer. Joshua 24:15 has that shape: a choice about where one’s own household will turn. The daily prayer for your family is written to be prayed most mornings, and the prayer to pray together can be read aloud at a meal or before bed.

What if my family relationships are strained or broken?

Then you are praying the kind of prayer many households need. Colossians 3:12-14 asks for patience, forgiveness and love that binds people together, and those are things to ask God for when home feels tense. Romans 12:18 is honest that peace is not always possible and does not depend on one person alone. The prayers for tension at home and for estrangement do not assume a quick reconciliation. If someone in your home is hurting you or anyone else, your safety comes first: contact local emergency services, a domestic abuse helpline or someone you trust. Praying for a family member never requires staying in danger.

Can I pray for family members who do not believe?

Yes, and it is one of the most common prayers people bring. It helps to pray for them as people rather than as a problem to solve, and to ask God to shape your own conduct at home as much as their beliefs. The prayer for family members who do not share your faith asks God to draw them in his time and to keep your love for them unconditional.

What if I do not have a family to pray for?

For some people the word family carries loss, distance or harm rather than comfort. Psalm 68:5-6 speaks of God giving the lonely a home, and that is a prayer anyone can bring. Family in Scripture is wider than a household; friends, a church community and neighbours can become people you belong to. The prayer for when family is something you are missing is written for that ache. If loneliness or grief feels crushing, or your thoughts turn toward not wanting to be here, please tell someone you trust today and contact a doctor, counsellor or crisis line. Reaching for that help is not a lack of faith.

How can faith be part of ordinary family life?

Deuteronomy 6:6-7 pictures faith talked about at home, on the road, at bedtime and in the morning. That suggests small and regular rather than grand and occasional: a short prayer at a meal, a question asked in the car, a verse read together now and then. The prayer for the children and young people in your family asks for that kind of everyday faith, carried by adults who are patient with the questions.

The passages this rests on

Bible translation

  1. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region 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.”

    Joshua 24:15 ESV

    And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.

    Joshua 24:15 KJV

    Joshua sets a choice before the gathered people of Israel: serve the gods their ancestors served, or the gods of the land they now live in, or the Lord. Then he declares that his own household will serve the Lord. He answers for his own house and does not claim to answer for anyone else's. That is a fitting shape for praying over a family: a decision about where your own home will turn, made without pretending you control every heart in it.

  2. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.

    Deuteronomy 6:6-7 ESV

    And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.

    Deuteronomy 6:6-7 KJV

    Israel is told to keep God's commands on their hearts and to teach them diligently to their children, talking of them at home and on the road, when lying down and when getting up. Read this way, faith is handed on in ordinary hours more than on special occasions. For anyone praying for the young people in their family, or for a home where faith feels quiet, it is a reminder that small daily conversations count for a great deal.

  3. Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

    Colossians 3:12-14 ESV

    Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.

    Colossians 3:12-14 KJV

    Paul tells the Colossian believers to clothe themselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness and patience, to bear with one another and forgive as the Lord has forgiven them, and above all to put on love, which binds everything together. The words are written to a church rather than to a household, but they describe what makes any shared life bearable. A family that has worn each other down can pray for exactly these things, one at a time.

  4. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

    Romans 12:18 ESV

    If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.

    Romans 12:18 KJV

    Paul urges living at peace with everyone, and he adds two conditions: if it is possible, and as far as it depends on you. Those conditions are the honest part. Peace is not always possible, and it never rests on one person alone. For anyone praying over an estrangement or a difficult relative, the verse asks for your share of peace without making you responsible for someone else's choices. It does not ask anyone to stay in harm's way to keep the peace.

  5. Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation. God settles the solitary in a home; he leads out the prisoners to prosperity, but the rebellious dwell in a parched land.

    Psalm 68:5-6 ESV

    A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, is God in his holy habitation. God setteth the solitary in families: he bringeth out those which are bound with chains: but the rebellious dwell in a dry land.

    Psalm 68:5-6 KJV

    The psalm describes God as a father to those who have none and a defender of widows, and says he gives the lonely a home. It is a word for people whose family is missing, broken or far away, and it pictures God himself drawing the solitary into belonging. For anyone who reads the word family with an ache, it is a place to start praying, not only for the family you have but for the home God can still give.

No family is held together by a perfect prayer. A name spoken to God in the morning, an apology offered first, a call made across the distance, a quiet request for someone you cannot reach: each is a real prayer for family. Bring God the people you love as they are, and ask him to begin the change he wants with you.

You might be wondering

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the King James Version, which is in the public domain. Scripture quotations marked ESV are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.