What’s In My Toddler’s Church Bag & How We Use It
The first time we took our toddler into the church sanctuary for Sunday morning service was quite embarrassing. She had just turned two and we were remarkably optimistic.
It started out fine. She was mesmerized by all the people, the stained glass windows, the choir and organ sounds that seem to surround us. Through all the liturgy, the getting up and sitting down, she was an angel. And then came the sermon.
For a few minutes, she was content to color and inspect the toys I’d packed for her. But then she set her big blue eyes on the Bible tucked in the back of the pew in front of us. She loves books, so I pulled it out for her to look at and turn the pages.
My first mistake was forgetting to put the crayons away first.
She immediately started trying to color on the Bible pages. I thwarted her quick little hands every time, but she started getting frustrated.
My second mistake was whispering a command in her ear: “We don’t color in the Bible.”
She became defiant. She thrust a red crayon toward the page just as I finished my sentence, so I quickly set the Bible back in its place in the pew and took the crayon from her fingers.
And then she screamed.
“NO BIBLE, NO! I DON’T WANT BIBLE. NO BIBLE!” I couldn’t get her out of there fast enough, between ducking out of the pew, making eye-contact with so many startled congregants on the way, and trying to shush her quiet.
I was mortified. With a first visit like that, I felt like maybe our little sinner wasn’t ready for the Sanctuary service.
But now, I’m grateful we tried again.
Our daughter a few months before her second birthday. The organist was practicing one evening and she sat down to listen.
Our church provides “adult electives” during Sunday School in the spring and fall. In fall 2025, we took “Parenting in the Pews,” and it was all the encouragement we needed to keep bringing our toddler to church. The class was filled with wonderful practical advice from fellow parents (who now have adult children who love and serve the Lord), but the first few sessions focused on the why.
Why do children belong in church?
In the reformed tradition, we believe the Bible teaches that children are part of God’s covenant promises. It’s why we baptize them as children - they are not little heathens visiting God’s church until they get saved. They are heirs of the promise because their parents are faithful members of God’s family.
Yes, children are still little sinners - they need new hearts and consistent correction and repentance just like we do. We pray daily that our daughter will never know a day without Christ’s love, that He would draw her nearer to him as she grows and one day give her a new heart. But she is still part of the body of Christ and therefore, receives the benefits of being part of God’s family.
It is vital to trust God’s promises, to let our children see what moves our hearts to delight (God and His Word!), and to show that worship is something we get to do together!
Our children are watching - they will love (or not) what we love about worship. If my daughter is always in the nursery, she won’t get to see how my husband and I worship the Lord during the most important hour of our weeks.
It’s not easy to keep her quiet and attentive, and sometimes (who am I kidding, most times!) I don’t hear most of the sermon. But God is so much bigger than my ability to remember every sermon point - I’ll probably never know all the work the Holy Spirit is doing in my own heart and my daughter’s heart as we wrestle through Sunday services during these little years, but I know He is working!
What’s in My Toddler’s Church Bag?
We decided to start bringing my daughter into church with us when she turned 2 years old. A few weeks before her birthday, I started building a “church bag.” I thrifted a mini backpack for a dollar (although, it didn’t last long and now we’ve moved on to an extra tote bag I had lying around). The rest of the items I found at the dollar store or on Amazon (with links!).
Note: As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Here’s everything I found at the dollar store:
A box of crayons & a plastic crayon holder (~$3)
Getting a plastic crayon holder has been so helpful! I don’t have to worry about the cardboard box fall apart, and the crayons fit so snuggly in the plastic holder that she can’t dump them all out!
I found these links on Amazon, if you’d rather order them: 3-Pack Box of Crayons and Plastic Crayon Box. These are way cheaper at the dollar store though!
A keychain water ring toss game (~$1)
This hasn’t been a favorite of hers, but she will still play with it every once in awhile.
A small notepad with colorful pages (~$1)
She likes to fill this notepad up with stickers, and then color around the stickers. It’s lasted us so long, because there are so many pages!
Here’s an Amazon version:
A pop-up book and playhouse (~$1)
This was a random addition that’s actually been so much fun. She likes to make figurines and dolls “look” into the windows and doors.
1.5 inch tall figurines (~$1.50 each)
These have been a favorite of hers way beyond the church bag. She’s able to bring a few with her on Sunday, so they don’t technically “live” in the church bag - they’re an everyday toy she just loves.
Sticker books (~1.50 each)
Sticker books are great, as long as you can keep your child from putting stickers on things they shouldn’t (like the pews, hymnal’s, etc.). Luckily, our daughter is content to put stickers in her notebook…or all over her shoes. ;)
Reusable Water Painting Book (~$1.50)
This one is fun, but I have to remember to refill the pen with water and sometimes I forget. Not a favorite of mine, but she loves it when I remember to prep it for her!
All my dollar store finds!
Here’s everything I found on Amazon:
Reusable sticker books (6-pack for ~$13)
I absolutely LOVE these reusable sticker books! The “stickers” aren’t actually sticky - it’s more like a clinging, rubbery material, so they can stick and unstick to the books endlessly. They also don’t stick to different material, so she can put them on me, the pew, my husbands Bible, anywhere and they come off easily!
LCD writing tablet (2-pack for ~$8)
She’s really loved these writing tablets. They are much quieter than magna-doodle tablets and provide endless “blank pages” for her to draw.
This was a fun addition so she could “read the Bible” when we read ours. :)
Melissa & Doug Soft Activity Book - What Should I Wear? (This was a gift, but it’s less than $15 on Amazon!)
My daughter got this as a birthday gift, so we decided to keep it in her church bag. She’s really enjoyed it, and likes to use the other figurines in the pages as well.
All my Amazon finds!
How We Use the Church Bag
We have two rules for the church bag: it’s only for church and we only open it when the sermon starts.
Rule 1 - The Church Bag is only for church.
We don’t allow our daughter to play with her church bag toys unless it’s Sunday. Sometimes that means she can bring it with her to our small group meetings (which are on Sunday nights), but she’s not able to pull these toys out any other day of the week.
Not only does this keep the novelty of the items inside (so you don’t have to replace them all the time!), but it also builds on the idea that Sunday is a special day! We want her to know that worshiping on Sunday is something we get to do. Sunday is different from every other day, so we get special toys and a special meal (we always have a bigger brunch on Sundays with foods we don’t eat during the rest of the week).
The Lord’s Day is the best day, and we want that to be evident in everything we do that day: the clothes we wear, the food we eat, the toys we get to play with, the extra rest we get to enjoy, and most of all, the way we spend our time - in God’s house with God’s people.
Rule 2 - The Church Bag stays closed until the sermon starts.
Our Sunday church services are liturgical. The sermon is usually only about 25 minutes long; the rest of the hour-long service is spent in embodied ritual. We’re sitting, standing, praying, singing, reciting, listening, putting our money in the offering plate, opening the hymnal, looking at the bulletin, saying hello to fellow members, holding up our hands for the benediction, etc. All physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual participation.
We want our daughter to be fully present in these moments, as a full child of the covenant. She sings with us, she stands when we stand (well, one of us holds her!), she sits when we sit. Now that she’s been to a few months worth of Sunday services, she likes to hold the hymnal with us while we sing, and she likes to get her own bulletin (our church has bulletins for little listeners and little readers!).
Only when the liturgy transitions to the sermon does she get to play with her toys, read her Little Bible, and color/play with stickers.
The sermon is the part of the service where the most sitting still and staying quiet is required, so it’s helpful to save the fun things for this time. She’s much more likely to sit through 25 minutes of quiet time after participating for the rest of the hour.
Build Your Own Toddler Church Bag - Some Tips!
What I Leave Out / What Hasn’t Worked
It’s probably obvious that loud toys aren’t great for a church bag, but it’s still helpful to point out. I thought a magna-doodle might work well for church, but we learned early on that my toddler isn’t great at quiet drawing. The LCD writing tablet is much quieter!
Our church also requests that we don’t bring food or drinks into the service, so we don’t pack snacks (besides her after-church treat; see below!) and we leave her water bottle in the car.
Now that she’s potty trained, this also helps prevent accidents. We use the potty right before the service begins and she’s able to hold it until it ends.
When the Service is Over
After we’ve received the benediction and said the three-fold amen, my toddler usually gets a treat if she’s done well. We want to encourage good behavior in church and reward her, so if things have gone well, she gets her favorite snack: goldfish (or cheddar turtles from Aldi!).
This is another way we try to make Sunday special - goldfish/cheddar turtles aren’t often offered outside of participating well in church. ;)
Final Thoughts: Training Takes Time
With a toddler, we’re deep in the “training” part of “train up a child the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6). Training takes time and consistency. Once you decide what’s most important (as believers, it’s being active members of the local church!), then you must spend the time and effort doing what you can to make it happen.
Some practical starting points that have helped us: pray for wisdom, reach out to fellow parents who you think have wisdom in this area, discuss what would best help your child to join you in Sunday service with your spouse, and give yourselves (and your little one!) lots of grace as you navigate this wonderful opportunity to disciple your child in corporate worship. We aren’t experts at this and when the Lord blesses us with more children, we’ll have new challenges to overcome. But the goal is the same: to disciple our children well and allow them to taste and see the beauty and necessity of Sunday morning worship.
Of course it was embarrassing to have my daughter scream “No Bible!” in the middle of a sermon, and I could have decided then that wasn’t worth it and she wasn’t ready. But she’s already grown and learned so much in the last few months, and I’m so grateful we kept practicing.
And it was far less embarrassing on a recent Sunday, when she heard “Jesus” from the pulpit and started softly singing “Jesus loves me” to herself while she colored. I still had to tell her it’s not time to sing, it’s time to be quiet, but how beautiful is that difference?
So much can change with consistent training, behavior modeling, and reminding her what’s the most important part of our week: worshipping God in His house with His people.
Happy stewarding little hearts, friends!
