Day 5: The Fruit of the Spirit

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40 Days of Prayer for Our Children Parenting
Day 5: The Fruit of the Spirit

 

 

Day 5: The Fruit of the Spirit

(When you see “these children”, insert the names of the children for whom you are praying.)

 

Lord, may these children display the fruit of the Spirit in their lives, which is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.    Galatians 5:22

                                                                                                                     In Jesus’ name, Amen  

What a list of characteristics!  I look at that list and see much I myself need more of.  And yet, it is the fruit of the Spirit, not my fruit.  He will equip us and our children in the many places we are weak.  In our weakness, He is strong.  However, we must surrender to His Spirit—step aside and let Him work. This is our prayer for ourselves as well as our children.

We frequently pray aloud certain scriptures for our children and this is one of the most common prayers.  Over the years, they have heard us pray this verse over them so much, they all can easily recite the list of the fruit of the Spirit.  In addition, this list gives them a set of “surrender goals”.  Goals are something that we work towards on our own.  But we want them to have this list as “surrender goals”—areas they work toward surrendering to the Holy Spirit, that they may step aside and let Him do His mighty work in their lives.

Day 4: Choosing Joy

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40 Days of Prayer for Our Children Parenting
Day 4: Choosing Joy

Day 4:  Choosing Joy

(When you see “these children”, insert the names of the children for whom you are praying.)

 

Lord, give these children joy in your presence.  May this joy be their strength.   Nehemiah 8:10

                                                                                                          In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

There is a huge difference between joy and happiness.  Happiness is based on circumstance.  If everything is going just as I wish, just as I planned, then I am happy.  But joy is deeper.  Joy is not dependent on circumstance.  Joy is what Jesus brings to our souls, even when we are not happy.

As parents, we often wish happiness above all for our children.  That sounds like a noble  wish, but in reality we would be short-changing our children if all they ever felt was happiness.  So many wonderful attributes can only be learned in the hard times.  If our children only experience happiness, then they will be handicapped in their character.  And yet, the modern day parent, including myself, tends to work very hard to ensure that their children are happy every moment.  This result is inevitably a whole generation of self-centered, happiness-seeking individuals.  And this will eventually lead to an empty, meaningless existence—just the opposite of the happiness we so eagerly sought.

Don’t get me wrong.  I am generally a happy person.  And I want my children to be happy children.  In our 28 years of parenting, we have often ask our kids, “Are you having a happy childhood?”  It is very important to us that our children look back on their childhood with happy, fond memories.  But that is not all I want for them.  I want above all for them to seek joy.

J.O.Y.  Jesus, then others, then yourself.  This is the secret to joy.  And that secret does not always equate with happiness.

As parents, let’s be willing to let our kids experience a bit of unhappiness and in the midst of it, let’s point them to joy.

 

Day 3:  Godly Patterns

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Day 3:  Godly Patterns

 

Day 3:  Godly Patterns

(When you see “these children”, insert the names of the children for whom you are praying.)

Lord, may these children not conform to the pattern of this world, but may they be transformed by the renewing of their minds, so that they may be able to test and approve what God’s perfect will is.         Romans 12:12                          

                                                                                                                                                In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

I remember when my mother used to sew for us.  I remember the feel of the thin paper pattern, I remember watching her lay the pattern on top of the cloth, pin it onto the fabric with straight pins, and then slowly and carefully cut along the pattern lines.  It makes me smile to remember that.

What pattern is laid on your life?  What is pinned to you, determining how you will be shaped?  We are told that we are not to conform to the pattern of this world.  Instead, we should allow God to lay His pattern found in His Word on our hearts, pin it securely there and cut away the access, so we may look and act the way He intends for us to look and act.  But it won’t look much like the rest of the world.  And for us to be okay with that, we must change our thinking—renew our minds.  Then we will clearly see and be glad of His perfect will being fulfilled in our lives.  May it be so for us and for our children.

Day 2: A Personal Faith

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40 Days of Prayer for Our Children
Day 2: A Personal Faith

 

Day 2: A Personal Faith

 (When you see “these children”, insert the names of the children for whom you are praying.)

Lord, may these children taste and see that You are good. May they experience Your love, which endures forever. Psalm 34:8; Psalm 100:5

In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

My mother used to say, “God doesn’t have grandchildren, just children.”  What she meant by that was that I couldn’t just ride the coattails of her faith.  I must have my own experiences, my own relationship with Jesus.  I had to taste it for myself, not just be satisfied with her experience.  May our children come to know Him and see His goodness for themselves.  And may our example lead the way… just like my mom did.

I encourage you to look up the references in these prayers in your own Bible.  I like to mark them with a pen and date them when the Lord speaks to me through them.  When my grandmother died, I inherited her Bible.  It is precious to me.  The most special thing about her Bible is that she, too, marked and dated verses as God revealed something special to her.  Her faith, and the faith of my parents, is the godly inheritance that I want to pass on to my children.  There is nothing more important.  So, I pray for them to experience Christ as a child of God, that they may have their own, unique relationship with Him.

Grow in the Lord today, so that your children will see the importance of faith for themselves.

 

Day 1: Safety

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40 Days of Prayer for Our Children Parenting
Day 1: Safety

So, here’s the prayer that we all want to pray.  Our first prayer for our children is usually about their safety.  I confess that I have probably prayed more for the safety of my children than anything else.  And yet, there are plenty of other heart-things to pray for, which in reality are more important than physical safety.  And yet, we would be remiss in not praying for their physical safety and the Bible has plenty of promises to pray.

The prayer listed above is one of my daily prayers for my children.  I usually begin this with, “Lord, I plead the blood of Jesus over them, and I pray that You would guard their hearts, their minds, their souls, and their emotions.”

This whole “pleading the blood” is “Christianese” which may be misunderstood.  Why do we as parents “plead the blood of Jesus” over them?  Because we understand that the victory began when Jesus shed His blood for us and for our children.  A price had to be paid and Jesus paid it for us.

“There is power, power, wonderous working power in the blood of the Lamb…” as the old hymn says.  When we plead the blood, we are acknowledging and remembering the powerful sacrifice of Jesus, which fulfilled every promise of God.  We are remembering that if He was willing and able to die for us and then rise again, then taking care of our children is not too hard for Him.

Revelations 12:11  says, “And they overcame him (our enemy, the devil) by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony…”

There is power in the blood of the Lamb and there is power in speaking forth (the word of our testimony) and believing the truth found in God’s Word.  Releasing our children to the protection of God is one of the hardest surrenders of this earthly life.  And yet, He is able to keep what we have surrendered to Him.  He is able to guard and protect much better than we are.  Only He sees the whole picture.  And the middle of the will of God is the safest place to be.