How to Pray with Prayer Doodles

Do you doodle in the margins of your notes at school or work? Did you know that doodling actually helps your mind focus and retain what you’re hearing? 

Prayer Doodles are a way to use your love for doodling and drawing in your prayers to help you focus on God. Keep reading to learn how you can incorporate drawing and doodling into your prayers to bring more focus (and fun) to your prayer time.

Doodling improves focus and generates new insight

I almost can’t resist coloring in outlined letters, especially if I’m on a conference call. The margins of my textbooks were always full of designs, headlines and other outlined shapes filled in. Doodling is practically compulsive for most of us.

I remember my mother’s telephone notes were always full of doodles. As she noted down names, numbers, and other pertinent details, she’d fill the space around them with elaborate doodles.

Why do we do this? Isn’t doodling just a waste of time, a bad habit we should have given up in school?

According to the Wall Street Journal, Sunni Brown, author of “The Doodle Revolution,” says doodling is a “thinking tool” that “affects how we process information and solve problems.” She also claims that every president from Washington to Nixon doodled, along with numerous great writers (Mark Twain, Sylvia Plath) and inventors (Thomas Edison).

What are Prayer Doodles?

Sybil MacBeth wrote a book called Praying in Color: Drawing a New Path to God (Active Prayer Series) {affiliate link} that outlines a way to pray through doodles. The act of drawing actually helps your mind better focus on your prayers and listen for God.

Her website has some wonderful illustrations and explanations on prayer doodling, but I’ll give you a brief overview here. You can pray different things through this method – names of God, names of people you’re praying for, scripture verses, or other prayer needs.

The key is to release the words to God as you draw. Make your doodling time prayerful.

How to Doodle Your Prayers

1) Start with a blank piece of paper.

2) In the center, write a name for God, the name of someone for whom you’re praying, or a scripture verse.

3) Draw a shape around the words to start the doodle. This is your prayer space. Start to doodle around it, releasing your words to God in prayer. Doodle in silence or talk to God if you feel led.

4) Add other people, other names for God, or other parts of the scripture verse to your paper. Draw a shape around each set of new words to create a separate prayer space. Doodle around these and pray.

5) Pause and say “amen” between each prayer space you add.

In case you find the beautiful examples on Sybil’s page intimidating, these examples here are some of my prayer doodles. If I can do these, then so can you!

Don’t worry about the artistic quality of your doodles. Just let your pen draw and your mind focus on your prayers.

4 Ways to Use Prayer Doodles

#1: Names or attributes of God

Prayer doodles can help you focus on praising and worshiping God, listening for his promises to you.

Start by writing out a name or attribute of God and doodle around that.

Then, continue with other names or attributes of God, or other words or promises you’re hearing him whisper.

In this prayer, you don’t need to pray a lot of words, just listen as you doodle.

#2: Prayers for Others

Praying for others is one of my favorite ways to use prayer doodles. Start by writing out the name of someone you’re praying for. Doodle around their name while you silently lift them up to God.

I’m very word-focused, so sometimes I’ll write words for that person – my specific prayers and praises – around the name as I doodle.

As you finish with that one, write the next name you’re praying for and do the same. Repeat until you’ve prayed through your list for the day.

#3: Praying Scripture

Another favorite method is to pray scripture with prayer doodles. I’ll write out a verse a few words at a time. I’ll doodle around those words, listening for God’s words to me.

This is a great way to soak deep in a verse – and can also help you memorize the verse.

#4: Get Creative!

I’ve done prayer doodles for specific events, conferences, mission trips, doodling around names of participants, specific needs or concerns.

Sybil has templates on her site to use prayer doodles to pray through Lent and Advent, just doing one small prayer doodle each day over a single word from Scripture.

There’s no limit to how you can use this form of prayer, so get creative.

How Will You Use Prayer Doodling in Your Prayers?

Prayer doodling is one of my favorite ways to pray. It stills my mind and gives me a greater focus on the content of my prayers. I find I pray longer and more intensely when I doodle in my prayers. Doodling is also a great way to memorize scripture.

So, are you ready to grab your colored pens and markers and a blank sheet of paper and get started? Or maybe you’re already doing this in your prayers and just haven’t had a name for it.

Even if you can’t draw, you can doodle. It doesn’t matter what your prayer doodles look like. Rather, it’s about the process of spending time with God, truly listening for his word to you.

Will you give it a try?

PRAY DEEP CHALLENGE: Take a look through Sybil’s website for examples on Praying in Color. Then, take some time to do your own doodle prayer. Start with a name of God in the center and then add your prayer requests around it.

Resources:

Like this post? Explore this and other forms of prayer through the Pray Deep prayer journals. Each book will lead you through a variety of prayer methods through 21 days of focused prayers. Get started with one today!

{These are affiliate links – and my own books – so any purchases help grow and sustain this blog.}

The very best resource on prayer doodles is Sybil MacBeth’s book, Praying in Color. She has several books available on prayer doodling and I highly recommend them!

{These are affiliate links, so a small bit from any sale goes back to sustain this blog, but I’m only recommending them because I’ve personally found Sybil’s books to be so valuable in my own prayer life.}

This post is part of the “Pray Deep” series. For more information on the series, click HERE.