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Prayers for a Child

iStock_000000820770MediumResizeThe closing days of summer bring to mind new fall adventures and unknowns. We wanted to know how our Mom Mentors prepare their children for the season. Let us know your answer, too!

Q: What is your major focus of prayer for your child or children these days?

Charissa Kolar: Summer swim team just ended for my sun-bleached blond headed 9 year old boy, Jack. He loves summer, what kid doesn’t?  But it is mid-August now, and my anxious thoughts about back to school are back. During each school year so far my son laments, “I don’t want to go to school, I hate school.”  I reasoned that once he gets used to school, or makes friends, or matures more, “then” he will finally like school.  But that has not happened yet.  Therefore, I face my Goliath again.  Like David I come relying on God and my slingshot is full of prayers.  CharissaAs I head off to battle, I decided to bring Jack along.  After all my son and I have Jesus in common.  So together we strategically pray for God to choose his next teacher and for some caring 4th grader friends. Thus, the focus of my prayer is about Jack coming to peace with his role as a student and all the responsibilities that it entails.  But my practice this year is to embrace praying as a time to disciple my son in hopefully the one lesson he will hold onto for his whole life: to pray. 

Chere_Williams_PictureChere Williams: School is right around the corner and it’s a bittersweet reminder of how quickly my daughter is growing up. She’ll be in 4th grade this year and is becoming quite the little lady. Anya has such a love for God and the major focus of my prayers lately is that God keeps her heart burning for Him and that she becomes more in tune to listening to Him and using discernment.

I’ve witnessed the unfortunate waning away from God when children start evolving into the adolescence stage and it breaks my heart because I’m well aware of the dangers of straying away from the Lord. One day I was reminded of the power of prayer, when she said to me, “Mom you know how you told me not to climb some of those trees at school because of the dead branches? Some of the girls were climbing and they kept telling me to come up. Well, I heard this voice saying not to do it and I think it was God.” I explained that it was and from that day I’ve been praying that God keeps whispering her ear and she keeps listening.

KonaBrownKona Brown: At the beginning of each year, I ask the Lord for specific scriptures for different areas in my life, that I can study and pray through on a weekly basis – almost like spiritual “markers” for the year. It helps me focus my prayers and also come in line with God’s will about different areas in my life, from family to missions and everything in-between. Both my boys are in primary school this year, and among the scriptures I am praying through for them include some wise words from Proverbs:

“The consistently righteous man is a guide to his neighbor, but the way of the wicked causes others to go astray.” —Proverbs 12:26

“He who walks as a companion with wise men is wise, but he who associates with self-confident fools is a fool himself and shall smart for it.” —Proverbs 13:20

Even though the boys are still so young, I want every area of their lives to be touched by prayer, including their choice of friends and the way that effects their walk. My prayer is that they will not only choose wisely, but also grow in being a good and wise friend choice for someone else.

DustyShellDusty Shell: Recently the major prayer focus that I’ve had for my children is that they will grow to love and serve the Lord despite the world around them. Our society has strayed so far away from the Lord that it’s rather frightening to think about what it will be like when my children are grown and living as Christian adults. It’s so easy to let our guard be slowly chipped away, so I pray that their breastplate of righteousness is strong enough to withstand it all!

TiffanyMalloyTiffany Malloy:  As three of my four kids head off to elementary school this month, my prayer for them remains the same as it has been all summer, that they would know how high and deep and wide God’s love is for them.

We desperately desire for them to fully know that when God created them, He made no mistakes.  We pray that they would know, deep in their bones, they are deeply loved by the God of the universe. We pray every day that through our actions, words, and attitudes, the kids would see the love of God shine through. We pray that our sometimes too-impatient attitudes and unthoughtful words would pale in the light of their knowledge of God’s great love for them.

I pray that they would know their identity and their worth as they interact with their peers, both good influences and bad influences. I pray that as they interact with teachers, the kids would know their identity and worthiness is not wrapped up in their ability to perform in the classroom.  And finally, I pray this understanding of how much they are loved will overflow out of their lives into the lives of those around them.

Audra HaneyAudra Haney: When you take a good look at the world and culture we live in, it can be a pretty scary place to raise a child. When I watch the news, I often think of the scripture Isaiah 5:20, “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness.” (KJV)

In light of the spiritual battles we now face to teach our children the truth of God, I pray constantly for the Holy Spirit to relentlessly and passionately pursue Norah—to show her His love, to give her a supernatural love for His Word, and also give her a supernatural love for Jesus Christ from the earliest age. I pray continually for wisdom and discernment in guarding her against the lies of the enemy.

I pray that she will have an experiential relationship with the Trinity that will enable her to be a “blameless and pure, [child] of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation. Then [she] will shine among them like stars in the sky. Phil 2:15 (NIV)

JillWilliamsJill Williams: My major focus of prayer for my children generally remains constant and high: that they will know, want and trust absolute Truth in this broken world full of real, tangible and influential deception. That they embrace this Truth and know that they are children of a very real, powerful and true God who is trustworthy, faithful and sovereign. Our God has a right to rule and He has a right to them, because they are His, bought with the price of Jesus’s substitutionary blood, to be with Him. I pray they understand the freedom, security, privilege and life that results from resting in such an amazing grace. These days, I try to pray accordingly regarding the circumstantial opportunities my kids, my husband and I have to trust this Truth in their lives, opportunities that God can use to direct their hearts (and ours) towards Him. These opportunities do change, are often unique for each of our children and can be really good, really hard or somewhere in between. They include friendships, health, school, sports, developmental growth, future spouses and yes, a changing culture. In such things, we pray for courage for our children and for us to trust God in it and for faith to want Him more than anything else.

JulieKierasJulie Kieras: With two boys, ages 5 and 3, a major focus of my prayers for them has been about protection and character. These are the most innocent and impressionable years of their lives. I pray God would keep them from the evil, awake in them a desire to know Him, and that their hearts would be tender and bent towards kindness. And above all, that one day, they would develop their own personal relationship with the Lord!

MomMentorLogoFBThank you, Mom Mentors! Learn more about them here and connect with their blogs. We would love to hear about your experiences, too! Do you have a question for them? Please post it below. And share your answer with us. See children’s books for growing up in God at grahamblanchard.com.

Text & Photo Copyright © Graham Blanchard 2015