Devotions for Single Dads: Doing It On Your Own

I'm Going to Be Honest With You Up Front

I'm a married dad. I built Hosted Devotions as a married dad with two boys who wanted a better bedtime routine. I haven't been through divorce. I haven't done bedtime alone five nights a week while managing everything else solo. I haven't sat in a quiet apartment after my kids went home to their mom's house and wondered how to stay spiritually connected to them across split time.

I haven't been through what you're going through. I want to say that clearly, because I think you can tell the difference between someone who actually knows and someone who's just filling a page.

But here's what I do know: single dads keep finding this app and telling me it's exactly what they needed. Not in spite of the fact that it was built by a married dad, but because the content doesn't assume a two-parent household, doesn't make things weird, and gives them a structure they can actually lead on their own.

So this article is my honest attempt to think through how devotions work for single dads — drawing on what they've told me, not pretending I lived it myself.

What's Actually Harder About This — And What Isn't

The obvious challenge: you're doing this alone. There's no partner to pick up a night when you're wrecked. There's no one to remind you when you've gone a week without it. There's no backup. Everything lands on you, and everything in your life is already landing on you.

What single dads tell me surprised me a little: the devotional itself isn't usually the hard part. They want to do this. Most single dads I hear from are deeply motivated — they're not looking for permission or inspiration to show up for their kids. They're looking for something that makes the showing-up easier, that doesn't require a lot of setup or prep, that doesn't feel like one more thing to manage.

That's actually exactly what a structured devotional series does. You open it. You read it. You ask the question at the end. Done. No planning. No expertise required. No partner needed to make it work.

The part that is harder — and I won't pretend it isn't — is the emotional weight of doing it alone. There's something about being the only adult in the room during those quiet bedtime moments that can feel both deeply meaningful and deeply heavy at the same time. That's real, and I'm not going to gloss over it.

The Custody Question

One of the most common things I hear from single dads: "We don't have bedtime together every night. How do I build a habit with this?"

Here's a reframe: consistency doesn't mean every night. It means every night you have them. If you have your kids three nights a week, those three nights can be the nights. You make it a fixture of your home, your time, your routine. The fact that there are nights they're not with you doesn't break the habit — it just means the habit looks different from the standard model.

And the devotional content doesn't need to know any of this. Your kid doesn't need an explanation. You just open it on night one of your time together, you pick up where you left off, and you keep going. If there's a gap between your time with them, you can keep your spot and resume. The series doesn't expire. There's no pressure to race through it.

The Create Your Own feature exists specifically for situations that don't fit a standard template. If your custody schedule, your kid's age and needs, or the dynamics of your family are specific enough that off-the-shelf content doesn't quite land — you can shape something that fits your exact situation. Single dads' lives are different from each other, and this is the tool that accounts for that.

What the Content Covers — And Why It Works On Its Own

Most devotional content either assumes two parents or awkwardly avoids the topic. The series in Hosted Devotions are written for a dad and a child — that's the unit. There's no assumption that mom is in the room, that there are two parents aligned on values, or that your family looks a particular way.

Each series has a kid's reading and a Dad's Companion — a separate entry that goes deeper on the same theme, written for you to read after your kid falls asleep or on your own time. Some of the single dads who've used the app told me this part matters most. Not just doing devotions for their kids, but doing the companion and actually having their own thread of spiritual growth going. Because the hardest thing about doing this solo is often that you're pouring out and not replenishing. The companion gives you something back. That's not an accident.

A Few Things That Help (Based on What Dads Have Told Me)

I won't pretend these are hard-won personal insights. They're things that single dads in this situation have shared with me, and they're worth passing along.

• Make it the first thing on your nights together, not the last. When bedtime is already chaotic, tacking devotions on at the end when everyone's exhausted is a setup for skipping. Some single dads do it right after dinner — same effect, lower stakes.
• Keep it short. On your nights with the kids, you're managing everything. A five-minute devotional is a realistic commitment. A twenty-minute one isn't. This guide on starting bedtime devotions walks through the basics of keeping it simple.
• Tell your kids this is what you do at your house. Kids adjust to different routines in different homes — they do it all the time. "At Dad's, we do our devotional" becomes a part of what your home is. That's not weird. It's yours.
• Don't worry about whether their other home does it too. You can't control that. What you control is what happens in your time with them. Do the thing you want to do. Let it stand on its own.
• Use the series to create continuity across your time together. "Remember what we read last time?" is a powerful bridge when there's been a gap. It tells your kid that even when you're apart, this thread runs between you.

The Spiritual Anchor in a Changing Season

Something that comes up consistently in what single dads share with me: devotions become more important — not less — during a season of transition and upheaval. When a lot of things have changed in a family, a consistent nightly ritual becomes one of the fixed points your kid can count on. It doesn't have to be elaborate. It just has to be there.

There's something stabilizing about the repetition. The same routine, the same app, the same question at the end. Even if life is complicated and the family structure has changed, this is a thing that happens. Your kid can count on it. In a season where a lot of things feel uncertain, that predictability matters more than you might think.

It also gives you a container for conversations that might otherwise never happen. Kids don't typically walk up and say "I want to talk about how I'm feeling about our family situation." But in the flow of a devotional about feelings, or about being brave, or about God knowing them — they sometimes say things that surprise you. You're not engineering a therapy session. You're just keeping the door open, consistently, and some nights something important walks through it.

You Don't Have to Have Everything Together to Lead This

I think there's a version of this that a lot of single dads believe privately: I need to have my own spiritual life more sorted out before I start doing this with my kids. Like there's a baseline you have to reach before you've earned the right to read a devotional with your child.

There isn't. Full stop.

A dad who's uncertain, who's in the middle of a hard season, who doesn't have clean answers — that dad doing a five-minute devotional with his kid is doing something real and valuable. Your kid doesn't need a finished man. They need a present one. Being there, reading with them, asking the question at the end — that's the thing.

And if your situation is complicated enough that standard content doesn't address it — custody logistics, a blended family, kids at different ages across your time — Create Your Own gives you a way to shape the devotional around your specific reality. That's what it's built for.

Single dads keep telling me this is exactly what they needed. I believe them. I think it can be exactly what you need too.

You don't have to have it all figured out. You just have to show up on your nights. That's enough.