Day 6:  God-Esteem

Lord, help these children to know that they are fearfully and wonderfully made.  Wonderful are your works!       

                                                                                                        Psalm 139:14

                                                                                                In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

We constantly hear that children need a good self-esteem.  But I want my children to have a good God-esteem.  I want them to see themselves as God sees them, a wonderful work of art—a masterpiece.  Self-esteem will fail them, God-esteem will not.

Maybe today you need to know that, too–that you are fearfully and WONDERFULLY made.  Fearfully does not mean in fear in this passage.  It means with respect.  God made you with great care and respect and He made you to be wonderful.  And you are.  And so are your children.

But we don’t always feel that way do we?

Just because we don’t feel something doesn’t mean it’s not true.

If the wind is blowing we don’t feel it if we are not outside.  But just because we are not outside, does not mean that it is not true that the wind is blowing.

Let’s get outside of ourselves and our negative thinking about ourselves.  Let’s believe God’s Word and let it transform how we see ourselves.  Feeling will follow after.  And our example of a good God-esteem will be an agent of change in how our children view themselves.

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 4:  True Love

Lord, may these children love one another.  For we know that love is from You, and everyone who loves is born of You and knows You, for You are love.   1 John 4:7-8

                                                                                                                       In Jesus Name, Amen.

Love is a very misunderstood word.  For the past year and a half, our three-year-old has been transitioning from Chinese to English.  She has amazed me!  She caught on quickly and used words in the right context.  One of the first sentences she learned to say was “I love you.”  It didn’t take long because she heard it over and over again from all seven of us.  But recently, as she was with me in the kitchen preparing dinner, I said, “Oh, Sally!  Try this!  Mama loves this!”

There it was, that LOVE word.  Did I really want her to think I love that food the way I love her?  Of course not.  I regretted that I may have confused her definition of love.  And yet, our society is confused all around us.  Our society tells us that love is all about how we feel, love is about what others can do for us.  But real love endures unpredictable feelings.  Real love is a choice of attitude and action.  Real love endures forever right along with faith and hope.  Real love comes from God.  May our children experience real love with God and others.

Update:  Sally has now conquered English and really understands the love of a forever family.  And now, she is showing that love to her new little brother, Charlie.  Charlie is still learning English and the impact of the words he hears and experiences.  We have heard those precious words from him, almost daily–“I love you”–still mixed with a Chinese accent.  But more importantly, he is learning that love really is action.  When we first got Charlie (just 8 weeks ago) we had to teach him affection.  He did not know how to kiss.  At  2 and 1/2, he “kissed” like a four-month-old with the wide-opened mouth smooched to my cheek.  Now, he relishes the hugs and kisses and offers them readily in return.  One of my favorite expressions of his love is the way he likes to be carried.  He wants to sit on my hip and look forward.  He is anxious to take it all in and doesn’t want to miss a thing.  But as he faces forward, he presses his cheek next to mine, the warmth of which is an expression of the safe, sweet place he has come to have.  And so, we move about our day, taking in all the normal, new-to-him movements of the day, cheek to cheek.  I know this time will be short-lived; a time is coming soon when he will leave my side and explore life on his own.  But I believe in his heart he will remain to cheek to cheek with all of us.  What an amazing work the Lord is doing.  Please continue to pray for us, my friends.  Here’s hoping that you , too, walk cheek to cheek with your kids and that we all will remain cheek to cheek with our perfect Heavenly Father.

          Day 3: 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.

Update:  Well, I am back to the world of toddlers.  And so now my house is filled once again with the sounds of toddler songs, tunes, and tv shows.  One of my favorites of all time is Steve Green’s Hide ‘Em In Your Heart.  When I first had these, they were on fat VHS tapes.  I have re-ordered them now on DVD.  I highly recommend these if you have young children or grandchildren.  Now, let me warn you–you will have to endured the styles of the early nineties  (Did I really dress my oldest kids like that?? Surely, not!)  but they are still tried and true in teaching young children straight scripture.  If you get them, check out the Fruit of the Spirits song!

        Day 2:  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 20 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.

Update:  When my daughter was in seventh grade, we moved.  I don’t think I have to describe how hard that is for a thirteen-year-old.  For years I struggled with an underlying guilt because of it.  Though we all agreed it was God’s leading, in her mind it was plain hard.  Definitely not happy.

But recently, we had a conversation in which she commented that she thought moving had developed her character in ways that were valuable, and in fact, she hoped she would be able to provide similar lessons for her own children one day.  Whew!  Nine years later, I finally saw what I had hoped was true.  The decision that did not bring happiness, in the end did bring something valuable and appreciated.  Sometimes we have to wait a long time to see that God really does have it all in control and yes, ALL things DO work for the good of those who love the Lord.