Lent Devotional for Kids (Free 40-Day Printable Pack — One Short Page per Day)
⏱ 18 min read
A lot of families don’t observe Lent — or only mark it lightly, with a vague “we’re giving something up.” That’s not a failure. Many Christian traditions don’t emphasise Lent at all, and there’s no shame in arriving here without a family history of keeping it. This devotional is an invitation, not a correction.
What a Lent devotional for kids does, when it’s kept gently, is teach them that the path to Easter morning has a shape. Forty days, walked slowly, with one short reading each evening. The story builds from Ash Wednesday — the start of the journey — through Jesus’s ministry, His teaching, His last week, the cross, and finally the empty tomb. By Easter morning, your child has walked with Jesus through every step. The celebration that follows lands as the end of a real journey, not a sugar-rush surprise.
Each day below is short — three or four minutes. A verse, two or three sentences of reflection, one tiny practice. Read it after dinner or at bedtime. If a day gets missed, just read the next day on the next evening. The walk is slow on purpose.
How to use this Lent devotional for kids
Begin on Ash Wednesday. Read one day per evening through Lent, skipping Sundays (which are traditionally “little Easters” and not counted in the 40). Each day has a verse, a short reflection, and a simple practice. Total time per day: three to four minutes.
If you miss a day, simply read the next day on the next evening. Don’t double up. The slow walk works because it stays slow. (If you walked our Advent devotional for kids in December, this is the same family-evening shape stretched across the 40 days of Lent.)
Day 1 — Ash Wednesday: A Quiet Beginning
Verse: “Return to me with all your heart.” — Joel 2:12
Lent is forty days of walking slowly toward Easter. We start today by turning our hearts back to God. Not in a loud way. In a quiet, honest way.
Practice: Sit quietly for ten seconds. Say in your heart: “Here I am, God.”
Day 2 — Dust and Love
Verse: “For he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.” — Psalm 103:14
We come from dust. God made us out of the earth, and one day we will return to the earth. That sounds sad, but God loves dust. He made us on purpose. He knows exactly what we’re made of.
Practice: Find a pinch of dirt or sand. Hold it. Say “God made me.”
Day 3 — Jesus in the Desert
Verse: “Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness.” — Matthew 4:1
Before Jesus began His big work, He spent forty days in the desert — quiet, hungry, alone with God. Lent is forty days too. We walk a small version of Jesus’s wilderness, in our own homes.
Practice: Think of one quiet place in your house. That can be your wilderness for forty days.
Day 4 — Hungry but Strong
Verse: “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” — Matthew 4:4
In the desert, Jesus was very hungry. The devil told Him to turn rocks into bread. But Jesus said no — God’s word feeds us more than bread does. Sometimes we want a snack when what we really need is a quiet minute with God.
Practice: Before your next snack, pause and say one short prayer.
Day 5 — God Doesn’t Need Tests
Verse: “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.” — Matthew 4:7
The devil tried to get Jesus to test God. Jump off this high place — God will catch you. Jesus said no. We don’t need to make God prove things. We can just trust Him.
Practice: Name one thing you trust God with, even though you can’t see how He’s helping.
Day 6 — Worship Only God
Verse: “Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.” — Matthew 4:10
The third time the devil tested Jesus, he offered Him kingdoms. Jesus said: no — only God gets my worship. Lent reminds us to put God first, ahead of everything else.
Practice: Name three things you love. Then say: “And I love God most.”
Day 7 — Jesus Begins
Verse: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” — Matthew 4:17
After the desert, Jesus began His ministry. His very first message was simple: turn back to God — He is near. That’s still the message of Lent.
Practice: Turn your body all the way around once. That’s what repent means — turning around toward God.
Day 8 — The First Friends
Verse: “Come, follow me, and I will send you out to fish for people.” — Matthew 4:19
Jesus called fishermen to follow Him. Just ordinary men, working at their ordinary job. He didn’t pick the most important people. He picked the ones who would say yes.
Practice: Say “yes, Jesus” out loud right now. That’s the first step of following.
Day 9 — Light for the World
Verse: “You are the light of the world.” — Matthew 5:14
Jesus told His friends that they would be light for the world. Not big spotlights — small, steady lights. Like candles. We don’t have to shine huge. We just have to shine.
Practice: Turn a lamp on. Notice how much one small light does.
Day 10 — When You Pray
Verse: “When you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father.” — Matthew 6:6
Jesus said prayer is best when it’s quiet and private. Not loud. Not for showing off. Just you, a closed door, and God.
Practice: Find a small private spot. Sit there for thirty seconds with God.
Day 11 — The Prayer Jesus Taught
Verse: “This, then, is how you should pray.” — Matthew 6:9
Jesus’s friends asked Him a question once: teach us how to pray. They had watched Him pray for years, and they wanted to know what He was doing. So Jesus gave them one short prayer to use — and we still pray it today, almost two thousand years later. People pray it in church on Sunday. People pray it in hospitals at night. People pray it before bed when they don’t know what other words to say. It’s a small prayer, but it’s a strong one — strong because Jesus gave it.
Practice: Take a slow walk around one room of your house. As you walk, say the whole Lord’s Prayer once in your head. Don’t worry if you forget a line. The walking and the praying together is the practice.
Day 12 — Daily Bread, on Different Days
Verse: “Give us today our daily bread.” — Matthew 6:11
This one line of the prayer is hard in two different ways. On the days when there isn’t quite enough at home — when the fridge is emptier than usual, or money is tight, or dinner is small — daily bread is the prayer of really needing God to come through. On the days when there’s plenty — when the kitchen is full and the meals are big — daily bread is the prayer of remembering that none of it came from nowhere. Both kinds of days belong in the prayer. Jesus didn’t say give us bread when we run out. He said give us today our daily bread — every day, every kind of day.
Practice: Draw your kitchen table the way it looked at your last meal. Draw the food, the plates, the people. Underneath your drawing, write the words daily bread.
Day 13 — The Boy in the Hospital
Verse: “For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.” — Matthew 6:13
There was once a boy who had to spend a whole night in a hospital. His mum sat in the chair beside the bed. He couldn’t sleep — the machines kept beeping and the lights in the hallway were too bright. He didn’t know any long prayers. He only knew one. So he prayed the Lord’s Prayer, very quietly, the whole way through. Then he prayed it again. Somewhere in the middle of the third time, he fell asleep. His mum stayed up watching him. She told me later that the words he was whispering were holding both of them at the same time. That’s what the prayer Jesus taught does. When you can’t think of anything else to say, you can say this.
Practice: Say the Lord’s Prayer out loud, slowly. If you don’t know all of it yet, that’s okay. Say the part you do know.
Day 14 — Your Own Version
Verse: “When you pray, say: ‘Father, hallowed be your name.’” — Luke 11:2
Jesus’s prayer is the prayer for everyone in every house. But it can also become your prayer, for your house. Try this. If you were to write a small version of the Lord’s Prayer just for the people you live with — the names you know, the kitchen you eat in, the worries that live in your house — what would it sound like? You might pray for daily bread by name: thank you for the cereal in the cupboard. You might pray your kingdom come by asking God to make your home a little more like heaven this week. The Lord’s Prayer is big enough to hold the whole world. It’s also small enough to hold your house.
Practice: Get a piece of paper. Write a short prayer for your own family — three or four lines — using the Lord’s Prayer as the shape. Keep it somewhere you’ll see it tomorrow.
Day 15 — Don’t Worry
Verse: “Do not worry about your life.” — Matthew 6:25
Jesus said worry doesn’t add a single moment to our lives. God already knows what we need. Worrying is like spending all day shouting at the sky.
Practice: Name one thing you’ve been worrying about. Hand it to God by holding your hands up and letting go.
Day 16 — The Birds and Flowers
Verse: “Look at the birds of the air… See how the flowers of the field grow.” — Matthew 6:26, 28
Jesus pointed at birds and flowers and said: God feeds them. God dresses them. He’ll take care of you too. The little things in nature are God’s reminders.
Practice: Look out a window for ten seconds. Spot one thing God made.
Day 17 — Ask and It Will Be Given
Verse: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find.” — Matthew 7:7
Jesus said God wants us to ask. Asking is not bothering God. It’s the way we talk to Him.
Practice: Ask God for one thing right now. Out loud or in your heart.
Day 18 — The Narrow Path
Verse: “Enter through the narrow gate.” — Matthew 7:13
Jesus said following Him is sometimes a narrow path — not the easiest one, but the right one. Lent is about getting better at choosing the narrow path.
Practice: Walk on a single line on the floor (a tile edge, a rug edge). That’s a narrow path.
Day 19 — Houses on Rock
Verse: “Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” — Matthew 7:24
Jesus said it isn’t enough to hear His words. We have to live them. A house built on rock stays standing in storms.
Practice: Stand on one foot for ten seconds. Notice what makes you steady.
Day 20 — Halfway There
Verse: “I have set the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.” — Psalm 16:8
Today is halfway through Lent. You’ve walked twenty days. Twenty more to go. God has been with you the whole time, even when it didn’t feel like it.
Practice: Look at the calendar. Count the days you’ve already done. Twenty is a lot.
Day 21 — A Lost Sheep
Verse: “Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.” — Luke 15:6
Jesus told a story about a shepherd who lost one sheep out of a hundred. He left the ninety-nine to go find the one. That’s how much God loves each of us — even when there are many of us.
Practice: Hold up one finger. Imagine God leaving everything to come find you.
Day 22 — The Lost Coin
Verse: “In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” — Luke 15:10
Jesus told another story about a woman who lost a coin and turned the whole house upside down to find it. When she found it, she called all her friends to celebrate. Heaven celebrates like that when one person turns back to God.
Practice: Find one small lost thing in your room. Even just a sock.
Day 23 — The Father Who Waited
Verse: “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him.” — Luke 15:20
Jesus told the most famous story of all — about a son who ran away, wasted everything, and came home. The father was watching for him the whole time. He ran out to meet him. God runs out to meet us when we come home.
Practice: Run three steps somewhere. That’s what God’s love looks like in motion.
Day 24 — The Greatest Commandment
Verse: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” — Matthew 22:37
Someone asked Jesus what the most important rule was. He said: love God with everything you have. Then love your neighbour the same way. Two rules. Both about love.
Practice: Put your hand on your heart and say “I love you, God.”
Day 25 — Love Your Neighbour
Verse: “Love your neighbour as yourself.” — Matthew 22:39
Jesus said the second great rule was to love the people around you the way you love yourself. The hard part is the people who aren’t easy to love. Lent gives us forty days to practise.
Practice: Name one neighbour or classmate you can be kind to tomorrow.
Day 26 — Let the Children Come
Verse: “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” — Matthew 19:14
Jesus’s friends tried to stop children from bothering Him. Jesus stopped them and said: let the children come. Jesus had time for kids. He still does.
Practice: Pretend you’re walking up to Jesus right now. What would you ask Him?
Day 27 — The Widow’s Two Coins
Verse: “This poor widow has put in more than all the others.” — Luke 21:3
Jesus watched people giving offerings at the temple. Rich people gave huge piles. A poor widow gave two tiny coins — but it was everything she had. Jesus said she gave the most. God measures gifts by what’s left in your hand, not what’s in the offering.
Practice: Find two small coins. Hold them. Imagine giving all of them.
Day 28 — Jesus Heals
Verse: “He took her by the hand and helped her up.” — Mark 1:31
Jesus spent a lot of His time healing people who were sick. He touched them. He spoke to them. He didn’t only heal famous people. He healed anybody who came.
Practice: Pray for one person you know who isn’t feeling well.
Day 29 — Jesus Calms the Storm
Verse: “Quiet! Be still!” — Mark 4:39
One night a huge storm came up on the lake while Jesus was sleeping in the boat. His friends were terrified. Jesus stood up and said two words to the storm: Be still. The storm stopped instantly. Jesus is in charge of storms too — the weather kind, and the ones inside us.
Practice: Put your hand on your chest. Whisper to yourself: “Be still.”
Day 30 — Feeding Many
Verse: “They all ate and were satisfied.” — Mark 6:42
Once Jesus fed five thousand people with five small loaves and two fish — a little boy’s lunch. Jesus can take small offerings and make them feed a crowd. What you have is enough when Jesus is in it.
Practice: Hold up your hands. Tell God “all I have.”
Day 31 — Riding into Jerusalem
Verse: “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” — Mark 11:9
Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, and people waved palm branches and shouted Hosanna! This is Palm Sunday week — the start of Jesus’s last week before the cross. The crowd was loud and happy. They didn’t know what was about to happen.
Practice: Wave one hand in the air. That’s what the crowd did.
Day 32 — The Last Supper
Verse: “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.” — Luke 22:19
The night before He died, Jesus shared a meal with His twelve closest friends. He broke bread and shared a cup of wine, and told them these were signs of His body and blood — given for them. Churches still share this meal today. It’s called Communion.
Practice: At your next family meal, take an extra moment of quiet before you eat.
Day 33 — Jesus Washes Feet
Verse: “Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.” — John 13:14
At that same meal, Jesus did something shocking. He got down on the floor and washed His friends’ feet — like a servant. The most important person in the room did the dirtiest job. That’s what love looks like.
Practice: Do one small helpful thing for someone in your family tonight, without being asked.
Day 34 — The Garden
Verse: “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” — Matthew 26:39
After the meal, Jesus went to a garden to pray. He knew what was coming and He was very sad. He asked God to take it away — but then He said: Your will, not mine. The hardest prayer in the Bible. Jesus prayed it for us.
Practice: Whisper “Your will, not mine” once.
Day 35 — Jesus Is Arrested
Verse: “All this has taken place that the writings of the prophets might be fulfilled.” — Matthew 26:56
Soldiers came to the garden and arrested Jesus. His friends ran away scared. Jesus did not fight back. He let it happen, because He had a plan, and the plan was love.
Practice: Sit very still for fifteen seconds. Imagine Jesus standing still as the soldiers came.
Day 36 — Peter Denies Jesus
Verse: “Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken… and he went outside and wept bitterly.” — Matthew 26:75
Peter, one of Jesus’s best friends, was so scared that he told people three times he didn’t even know Jesus. Then he heard a rooster crow and remembered Jesus had said this would happen. He cried. We all let Jesus down sometimes. The good news comes in three days.
Practice: Think of a time you said sorry to someone. That’s brave.
Day 37 — Good Friday: The Cross
Verse: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” — Luke 23:34
Today is the saddest day of Lent. Jesus was nailed to a cross and died. But even while He was dying, He prayed for the people who were hurting Him. Forgive them. That kind of love is bigger than anything humans had ever seen before.
Practice: Light a small candle and let it burn for one minute, then blow it out. Sit in the quiet.
Day 38 — Saturday: The Quiet Day
Verse: “He rested on the seventh day from all his work.” — Genesis 2:2
On the Saturday after Jesus died, His friends sat in their houses and didn’t know what to do. Everything felt over. They didn’t know that Sunday was coming. Sometimes we feel that way too — like nothing is going to change. But God is working, even on the quiet days.
Practice: Sit quietly for thirty seconds. Wait. Tomorrow is coming.
Day 39 — The Stone Rolled Away
Verse: “He is not here; he has risen!” — Matthew 28:6
Early Sunday morning, some women went to the tomb where Jesus was buried. The huge stone was rolled away. An angel was there. He is not here. Jesus was alive again. The very worst thing — death — had been beaten.
Practice: Open a door wide. Imagine the tomb opening like that.
Day 40 — Easter Morning
Verse: “Christ has indeed been raised from the dead.” — 1 Corinthians 15:20
You made it. Forty days. The whole walk from Ash Wednesday to Easter morning. The journey is over and the celebration begins. Jesus is alive. He is alive forever. He is alive for you.
Practice: Shout “He is risen!” together. As loudly as the house allows.
What to do after Easter
The forty days have done their work. The slow walk is over. Easter morning has arrived as the end of a real journey — not as a sugar surprise, but as the answer to a question your children have been carrying for weeks.
Let Easter Sunday be loud and joyful. Eat the chocolate. Hunt the eggs. Sing the hymns. Then, if you can, light one candle in the evening — the last candle of Lent, the first candle of Easter — and read John 20 together. The story is bigger than one day. (If you’d like to keep praying daily for your children past Easter, our 30-day guide on how to pray for your children is the next-step companion to this Lent devotional for kids. For your own grown-up Lent practice, our piece on Lent fasting ideas beyond giving up chocolate sits alongside this kids’ walk.)
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A keepsake Lent journal for the family
Once you’ve walked one Lent with the printable, the next year often calls for something a little more lasting — a journal you can keep year after year, with space for your kids to write or draw a sentence each evening. The kind of book that ends up in a drawer with your child’s handwriting in it from the spring they were eight.
That’s the Everspring Devotional for Teen Girls. All 40 days, illustrated, with space for one drawing and one sentence per evening, plus a few extra pages for Holy Week. Built for families walking Lent for the first time, and for families who want a keepable record of the walk year after year — the keepsake form of the Lent devotional for kids in this article.
The Everspring Devotional for Teen Girls walks the 40 days of Lent at the pace of a small child, with one short reading per evening and space for what only your kids can draw. Built for the family that wants Easter to arrive after a real walk.
