16 | How to Create a Simple Bedtime Routine to Connect with God (That You'll Love Too)

Welcome to Intentional Motherhood, where Christian moms learn practical peaceful parenting tools to build deeper connection while staying rooted in their God-given purpose. I’m your host, Kelsey Redd, and today we’re diving into one of the most chaotic—and most sacred—parts of parenting: bedtime.

If bedtime at your house feels like total mayhem—meltdowns, stalling, hunger strikes, and sibling drama—you’re not alone. But what if that same moment could become a peaceful, prayerful, and powerful opportunity to nurture your child’s spirit, teach gospel truths, and strengthen your bond?

In this episode, I walk you through my ideal bedtime routine with four kids under six (including twins!), including:
🌙 How to create calm, connection, and structure at the end of the day
🧒 A nightly rhythm of prayer, gratitude, and emotional check-ins
🙏 How we teach our kids reverence and respect during family prayer
💖 My favorite practice—the Body Blessing—inspired by Habits of the Household by Justin Whitmel Earley
💬 How to gently open spiritual conversations with your kids at bedtime
💡 Simple ways to bring God into your child’s heart and imagination—without a lecture

Whether you’re in survival mode or ready to be more intentional, this episode gives you real-life parenting tips and faith-centered rituals to transform bedtime from chaos to connection.

Perfect for:

• Christian moms of young children
• Families looking to build meaningful bedtime routines
• Moms seeking peaceful parenting tools rooted in faith
• Anyone interested in Habits of the Household or intentional spiritual parenting

🎧 Tune in and discover how to end the day with grace, peace, and purpose—no matter how messy the bedtime journey may be.
✨ Plus: A shout-out to Justin Whitmel Earley’s new podcast Intentional Fatherhood—perfect for dads who want to lead with love.

🕊️ Connect with Kelsey on Instagram @creating.intentional.mothers and share your favorite bedtime rituals!

Episode Transcript

Kelsey Redd (00:07):
Hey friends, welcome to Intentional
Motherhood, peaceful parentingskills for deeper connection and
living your purpose. I'm yourhost, Kelsey Redd, your guide to
thriving as a mom who's craftingyour own dream life while
raising amazing kids. And today,we're gonna talk about something

(00:32):
that every mom knows all toowell, bedtime routines. Oh,
bedtime is, how do we say, anightmare sometimes? And also, a
golden opportunity to deepenyour connection with your kids,

(00:55):
to nourish their spirits, andeven to help them process their
day.
I promised you in a previousepisode that I was going to tell
you all about my bedtimeroutine, and especially my
favorite part, which wasinspired by Justin Early
Whitmull's book Habits of theHousehold, and it's his body

(01:19):
blessing. And I love this partof bedtime. And this is the part
I really am excited to tell youabout. Also, I have to tell you
that Justin Early Whitmull juststarted his own podcast and
guess what it's called?Intentional Fatherhood.
So please go over and visit thatpodcast, share it with your

(01:42):
husband so you guys can be onthe same page as you're learning
how to be intentional parents.I'm so excited about this. So
let's talk about bedtime,especially bedtime with young
kids. It can sometimes feel likeyou want to pull your hair out.

(02:04):
I am amazed at how bedtime hasthe ability to bring out the
absolute worst in all humans.
At least I know I have had someof my worst parenting moments
during the bedtime routine.There's always someone who

(02:24):
suddenly is starving for dinnernow that it's bedtime, although
they refuse to eat dinner twohours earlier. Nobody's ever
tired. We finally learned thetrick of having to actually plug
our kids' noses to get them toopen their mouth so we can brush
their teeth. I mean, there's aparenting hack for you if you've

(02:47):
ever needed one.
So mamas, I see you. I've beenthere. I've got four kids under
six, twins included. It ischaotic. These moments test our
patience, but they're also anopportunity to show up
intentionally and they can be sobeautiful.

(03:09):
And also let me be clear thatthe bedtime routine I'm going to
share with you is my idealbedtime routine. It's the
routine that it's like the goldmedal of routines. And
oftentimes it is not the bedtimeroutine that actually happens,

(03:30):
but it's what we're strivingfor, right? It's that bedtime
that happens every once in awhile, and you leave the bedroom
and you think that was it. Thatis a parenting win.
That was how I wanted to showup. I'm also gonna tell you that
it's a times and seasons kind ofthing because right now we're in

(03:50):
a season, like literally aseason, it's called summer,
where we have thrown almost allbedtime routines out the window
because it's not getting darktill after nine, we're playing,
we're doing things a littledifferently with very loose
schedules and very looseroutines. There's something
special about that in and ofitself. So we do the best we

(04:11):
can. But I wanted to share thebedtime routine that I love with
you so that when you're in thosehigh vibe moments and you're
ready to bring it, bring it100%, that you'll have some
ideas for how to do that.
So bedtime can be a beautifulwindow of time to connect, to

(04:34):
teach, to communicate, to teachkids even gospel principles. So
how do we turn what can be avery chaotic time into something
a little more soulful? So let mebreak it down. First of all, we
keep our bedtime routine assimple as possible. We only have

(04:58):
the very least amount of stepsthat we have to to get into bed.
The first is we gather in thekid's bedroom and we all get
together for a family prayer.This is a moment where we get
to, first of all, teach whatprayer should look like. We talk
about reverent positions and howto show God respect and honor in

(05:22):
our prayer by not rolling aroundand wrestling, not playing, not
flailing around, but trying toactually be in a seated or
kneeling position with our eyesclosed and our hands folded and
showing respect. We tell ourkids to show respect for God and

(05:42):
for the person saying the prayeras we say this family prayer.
And I love the family prayeropportunity to ask kids to say,
Okay, what are you guys thankfulfor?
What should we say that we'regrateful for in this prayer? And
we can maybe all, maybe a few ofus share something we're
grateful for. And then I canalso ask them, is there anything
that anyone needs help with? Isthere anything that you guys are

(06:05):
worried about? And we cancommunicate those together and
we can explain that the personsaying the prayer gets to speak
for everyone else in the familyand ask for those things that we
need.
And that's a really good way.Our kids are young, but I think
as they get older, it's gonna bea really cool way to help our
family stay in touch with theworries and challenges that
we're all facing so that theycan be aware. Oftentimes, when

(06:30):
mom and dad say the prayer, itsounds a lot like, please help
mom and dad to be patient and tonot yell during bedtime. That's
a very common prayer atnighttime for us. So after
family prayer, we have brushteeth, go potty, get in bed.
That's pretty much it. It's likeI said, as minimal as we can
possibly be. But it's after thekids are getting in bed, and we

(06:54):
come to say our good nights,that is where the real magic
happens. Because this is theopportunity that we have to
speak individually to each ofour kids. And this is the part
where, again, I guide themthrough their own prayer, I
encourage them to say prayer bythemselves now.
And this is where I get to askthem individually. And of

(07:14):
course, my husband is doing thiswith another child. Or we're
doing an abbreviated version ofthis because someone is with the
baby, or because someone is outin the evening and there's only
one parent. So again, it looksdifferent. But let's just go
with the ideal, right?
So ideally, this is where I getto lay with each of my kids, or

(07:37):
at least a couple of them, andask them, Okay, when you say
your prayers today, what are yougoing to say that you're really
grateful for? What went well inyour day today that you want to
say thank you to God for? Andthey'll maybe tell us a few
things. I say, Is there anythingyou're worried about? Is there
anything you need help with?

(07:57):
Is there anything that scaredyou today? Or is there anything
that you maybe need to say sorryfor in your prayer tonight? And
we can talk through those thingsa little bit. And then I usually
ask them, Do you want to say theprayer or do you want me to say
your prayer? And right now, ofmy kids young age, they usually
want me to pray.
And I love it because it's anopportunity for me to model to

(08:19):
them what I want their prayersto sound like as they get older,
to model the conversations thatI hope that they have with God
as they grow up and are off ontheir own. So asking those
questions in and of themselvesis a great way to kind of find
out what's going on in my kids'hearts and minds. Sometimes I'll
just say, What kinds of thingsare you excited about? Or Is

(08:43):
there anything that is worryingyou right now? Is there anything
that you're feeling icky about?
And those might just beconversation starters that we
can talk about as we're gettingready for that prayer. But
typically, after I say theprayer, I always say, Now I'm
going to give you your bodyblessing. And again, credit

(09:04):
where credit is due. This isstraight out of Habits of the
Household by Justin EarlyWhitmull. And I have changed the
words a little bit.
But in that book, he gives hisexact script that he says in his
Body Blessings. And like I said,I've changed it a little bit,
but it essentially follows thescript of I touch their feet,

(09:27):
and I bless their feet. I blesstheir feet that they will be
able to confidently walk wherethey need to go. And then I
touch their legs and I blesstheir legs. And then I touch a
belly and I say, bless herbelly, that it will be full of
good nutrition.
And I touch her back or hisback. And I say, bless his back

(09:49):
that he'll be able to bear theburdens that he faces. And I
touch his arms and hands. And Isay bless his arms and hands to
be anxiously engaged in goodworks and kind deeds. I bless
their necks to turn towardsthose in need.
I bless their ears to hear theWord of God and to hear the Word

(10:13):
of their parents. The fun partabout these blessings is I slip
in all the things that I want toteach them that they don't want
me to lecture them on. I slip itinto their body blessing. I
bless their eyes to see beautyin the world around them. I
bless their mouths, and this isone of my favorites, to always
say kind words, to always usekind tones, and to never scream

(10:38):
at mom, and to never scream attheir sister.
Sometimes I leave that part out,but sometimes on a bad day, I
remind them in their bodyblessing to never scream at mom.
And I bless their minds to befull of the knowledge and wisdom
of Jesus. And above all, I touchtheir heart and I say, I bless

(10:59):
your heart to be full of lovefor God, for others and for
yourself. And that's the end ofthe prayer. And that is my
favorite part of our bedtimeroutine.
And that one, despite what elseis going try to squeeze in no
matter what, no matter howexhausted or frustrated I am.
And that helps me remember howsacred my sweet little babies

(11:23):
are, and what I want for theirlife, and what I want to teach
them, and what I want them toexperience day to day. And I
know from doing it day afterday, week after week now for
months and probably years, thatit's sinking into them too, that
they're starting to understandhow God can show up in their
life because I've blessed God tobe a part of every part of their

(11:46):
body and every part of their dayand all the things they do. So
there you have it. That is myfavorite bedtime routine, my
favorite part of the bedtimeroutine.
And I hope that it helps you andgives you some ideas of things
you can incorporate into yourbedtime routine to make bedtime
a little more intentional inyour home. Share your favorite

(12:11):
rituals with me on Instagramcreating. Intentional. Mothers.
If you found this episodehelpful, subscribe to the show
and leave a review so even moremoms out there can find this
space and connect with us sothat we can build our community
of uplifting moms.

(12:33):
I'll see you next time onIntentional Motherhood.