If I’m not careful, I rush through most of my days.

If you’re a mom, you probably know exactly what I mean. We hurry from one thing to the next— packing lunches, answering texts, wiping counters, breaking up sibling arguments—and before we know it, the day is over.

And yet, tucked inside all that ordinary, all the busy tasks, are little glimpses of God’s faithfulness.

The problem is never that He isn’t showing up. It’s that we forget to notice.

And in a world that keeps accelerating, if we’re not intentional, we’ll raise kids who do the very same thing—moving quickly through life, distracted, missing the quiet ways God is at work right in front of them.

This matters more than we might think.

I believe one of the most powerful skills we can help our children develop is the skill of observation—the ability to notice and remember God’s faithfulness.

Over and over again in Scripture calls His God’s people to remember. Not because He is nostalgic, but because the habit of remembering strengthens our faith.

But, we can’t remember what we haven’t first learned to see. Observation, noticing God’s faithfulness, enables remembrance.

“I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your wonders of old” (Psalm 77:11).

The reality is, every child is building a story about who God is.
The question is… what are they building it with?

Sunday school stories and memory verses are a wonderful place to start. But if that’s where it stops, faith can stay shallow—easily shaken when life gets hard.

When we help our kids notice and remember God’s faithfulness, we’re giving them something sturdier. We’re placing stones beneath their feet, helping them to build their faith on solid ground. We’re inviting them into a real, relational walk with a God who sees them, knows them, and cares for them deeply, giving them a steady hope no matter what life brings.

Because alongside Scripture and prayer, the lived experience of God’s faithfulness in their own lives will become one of the strongest anchors of their faith.

The goal isn’t just to raise kids who know about God.
It’s to raise kids who can say with confidence, “I’ve seen Him show up in my life.”

With that in mind, I collected a list of practical ways we can help cultivate the habit of observation in our own homes and teach our kids to observe God’s faithfulness in their own lives:

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Make It Visual + Tangible

Having something visible and interactive is a great way to make big concepts tangible, especially for young kids. Here are a few ideas:

Start a “Faithfulness Jar”
Grab a mason jar and some scrap paper. Write down moments of God’s goodness, big or small, and drop them in. At the end of the month (or year), sit down together and read them out loud.

Create a Timeline of God’s Goodness
Hang a string on the wall and clip on moments over time—answered prayers, milestones. It becomes a visual reminder that God’s faithfulness isn’t random, but consistent.

Have “Stone of Remembrance” Moments
Borrow from Samuel and create an ebenezer. After a meaningful moment, let your kids pick a rock and write a word on it. Stack them somewhere visible (maybe in a garden) or keep smaller stones in a bowl where they can sift through them.

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Build It Into Your Daily Rhythms

Formation happens in the small, repeated moments, so let’s build this into the rhythms you’re already keeping. Here’s a few ideas:

Dinner Table: High / Low / God Showed Up
We typically ask our kids to share their high and low from the day. But, adding one simple question: “Where did you see God today?” Is a sweet way to turn the conversation toward the Lord.

Some days you’ll get deep answers. Some days it’ll be, “Uhh… I found my shoe?” 😅 Count it anyway. You’re building the muscle.

Bedtime Blessing Review
Before praying with your kids at the end of the day, you could ask:

“What’s one way God was kind to you today?” This gently trains their minds to end the day with gratitude, looking for grace.

Carpool Questions

Car rides are such a hidden gift—built-in time to connect without distractions. Instead of surface-level questions, gently guide the conversation a little deeper:

What was the best part of your day? Was anything hard or frustrating? Where do you think God was with you in that?

You’re not looking for perfect answers. You’re helping them learn to notice.

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Celebrate + Mark the Moments

Don’t just notice God’s faithfulness—celebrate it.

Answered Prayer Parties
Did God come through? Celebrate!

Ice cream. Dance party. Family movie night Whatever fits your crew. Just make it memorable and give God the glory.

Annual “Remember When” Night
Pull out the jar. The photos. The journal.

Tell the stories again. Because repetition builds remembrance—and remembrance builds faith.

Mark Milestones
First day of school. End of a hard season. Moving houses. When we pause and say it out loud: “God is with us here.” It’s easier to notice His faithfulness.

We love using the Every Moment Holy liturgies to help make these moments feel more meaningful and lift our eyes to the Lord. They are short, guided prayers that make milestone moments feel even more special.

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Teach Them to Recount It Out Loud

There’s something powerful about saying it.

Practice Simple Testimony Language
Keep it easy: “I prayed for ___, and God helped me by ___.”

As parents, we get to be the first to model this and when prayer is a regular part of your family’s rhythms they get to see it!

Family Storytelling Nights
Tell your own stories. The ones where God showed up. The ones where you had to wait. The ones where you didn’t understand at first.

Kids borrow faith from what they hear repeated.

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And What About the Hard Things?

I’m not at all suggesting we give our kids rose colored glasses. Scripture doesn’t shy away from the fact that in this world we will have trouble.

And the reality is, often the deepest faith is forged in the fires of our lives. The times when prayers feel unanswered. When things don’t go the way we hoped. When life feels confusing.

In those moments, we can gently help them say:

“That was really hard… but God was still with us.”

It’s not about forcing meaning. Or rushing to healing. But simply pointing to truth:

God is present.
God is good.
And He is working—even here.

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

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Final Thought

One day, your kids will face something you can’t fix. And in that moment, they won’t just need advice…They’ll need a memory.

A moment they can look back on and say:

“God was faithful then…so I trust He’ll be faithful now.”

Let’s help them build that story—one small moment at a time.