How Can We Pray for Our Kids?
August 23, 2009 by Standing on Truth
Filed under Parenting
“Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land that the LORD swore to give your forefathers, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth” (Deuteronomy 11:18-21).
This is a beautiful verse. In Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Bible, he breaks it down and says “Let our hearts be filled with the word of God. . .Let our eyes be fixed upon the word of God. . .Let our tongues be employed about the word of God.”
“Arise, cry out in the night,
as the watches of the night begin;
pour out your heart like water
in the presence of the Lord.
Lift up your hands to him
for the lives of your children,
who faint from hunger
at the head of every street” (Lamentations 2:19).
I have a rather compliant child, and by compliant I mean that maybe 7 out of 10 times he will do as I ask without much fuss. The other 3 times his human nature takes over. I’m doing my best to do exactly as this Deuteronomy verse instructs me–fix God’s words in my heart and mind, teach them to our son, talk about them when we are home and out, going to bed and waking up, and write them on the doorframes of our house. But as involved as I am and as compliant as he is now, I’m not so naive as to believe there will never come a time (or many times) when he wants to go his own way 10 out of 10 times, even when it means walking out of God’s protection, provision and plan for his life. So what is one of the best things I can do for him, to cover all those compliant, non-compliant, and downright rebellious times? Yes, pray.
“Prayer alows you to enter into places where we don’t have access” (anonymous author). I’ve had this quote in my kitchen for many years, and it reminds me that, during those times in which I feel completely powerless over my circumstances (including any involving my son), I can pray and immediately do one of the most powerful things of all (if not, THE most powerful thing).
So, what specifically can we pray for? What are some of those prayers that we can lift up to the Lord on a daily basis and immediately know that we are employing the power of Creator God in the lives of our children?
One of my favorite authors of is Stormie Omartian and she has written a book called “The Power of a Praying Parent.” In it, she outlines 29 topics that we can pray for our kids and then gives beautiful sample prayers for each of these topics. Here are just a few of those topics, and I encourage you to pick up a copy of her book to view them in more detail:
Securing Protection from Harm
Feeling Loved and Accepted
Attracting Godly Friends and Role Models
Developing a Hunger for the Things of God
Being the Person God Created
Identifying God-Given Gifts and Talents
Receiving a Sound Mind
Inviting the Joy of the Lord
Breaking Down Ungodly Strongholds
Growing in Faith
These prayers are perfect for daily use and tenderly address all types of issues, helping us to get at the heart of what we desperately long for when it comes to our children and their future.
Another book that I recommend is called “While They Were Sleeping” by Gary Harrell and Anne Arkins . This is a prayer guide that takes you through 12 character traits that parents and grandparents can pray for on a daily basis, a few of them being:
Humility, Teachability, Obedience, Purity, Responsibility, and Servanthood
One of the things that I pray for most often for my son is that he will love God more than any other thing or person (including himself) and that he will stay open to God’s leading and teachable through His Word for all of his life.
We can’t go wrong when we pray for our kids. May we always endeavor to make the time for it.
“From the moment we awake until we fall asleep, we must commend our loved ones wholly and unreservedly to God and leave them in his hands, transforming our anxiety into prayers on their behalf” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer).
