I was in a Bible study years ago and I recall a woman talking about her teenage son who was “testing the waters”. He was pushing his limits… to put it plainly he was rebelling, leaving that mom feeling worried, worn out and tirelessly seeking the Lord’s protection over him. She pointed out how so many kids in her son’s school, were on similar paths. Drugs, suicide, alcohol were common factors in many of these teens’ lives. She shared how as a teen, she very much tried her parents in the same ways. But she said that there was a difference back then. When she was in her adolescent years of rebellion, she was covered by generations of prayer. Not only were her parents praying for her daily, so was her grandmother, and great-grandmother. Nowadays daily prayer has become a devalued, underappreciated, lost task.
Let me just get on my soapbox for one quick second…
Fellow mama,
Prayer is hands down the most powerful thing we can do for our children! There is spiritual warfare taking place every day. The enemy is fighting for our children’s souls. Sound too dramatic? That’s the problem, our world has downplayed the reality of Heaven and Hell. Listen, they both exist and we need go to the front lines every day and pray for our kids, just do it. Think about what prayer really is anyway. It is us pleading and conversing with the Creator of the whole world. The God who loves your child more than you wants to talk to you and wants to hear you cry out to Him. Take a moment to let the literal meaning of prayer set in.
Okay off my soapbox.
A lot of us (myself included) find ourselves too busy to pray. Or we don’t know what to pray or how to pray. We make it out to be this daunting insurmountable task and avoid it all together. If that’s you, I can relate. I have been there! I still have to constantly do a gut check to make sure prayer is a priority in my life, otherwise, it can easily get pushed off to the side.
If you want some tips on HOW to organize a SIMPLE prayer journal and work it into your routine check out this post (and I have created these fun printables to help you get started).
Is there a right and wrong way to pray?
Today I am going to focus on WHAT to pray for our children. Remember this is just a general list to get your prayer life jump-started or restarted. Your list does not have to be identical or look anything like this at all. However, if you aren’t praying for your kids because you don’t know what to pray for, then this is a great place to start. The Holy Spirit will help you evolve it from here. There is no right or wrong way to pray.
As a matter of fact, God knew that we would struggle with this. How do I know that? Because Romans 8:26 says so. It says that we don’t know what to pray for, but the Holy Spirit is the messenger between us and God. He fixes what we are messing up when we pray. Don’t believe me, read it for yourself:
“In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.” Romans 8:26 NIV
Bottom line is this… you can’t mess up. You CAN NOT pray wrong! The Holy Spirit has your back, so just pray for those kids! (Note: praying for your spouse is important too! Stay tuned for my post about praying for your spouse).
Where to Start When Praying for your Children
(note: don’t get overwhelmed by this list, pick a few to start and let it evolve from there):
- Salvation: Pray for their salvation. If they haven’t already, pray that they make a decision to ask Jesus into their hearts.
- A love for God’s Word: Pray that they fall in love with scripture as this is a direct way to draw nearer to Him and know his character.
- Spiritual Gifts: God has gifted all of us with unique spiritual gifts. Pray that you and your child would be aware of those spiritual gifts and use them to glorify God. Pray that God shows you as the parent who your child was created to be for His glorious purpose. (Remember these kiddos are on loan to us. It is our job to foster an environment to raise them up according to God’s bigger plan).
- Life Purpose: Pray that he/she is in tune with and responds to God’s plan for his/her life.
- Prayer Life: Seems redundant. But for real, pray for your child to draw nearer to God in his/her prayer life. Pray that your child will seek God in confession, thanksgiving and supplication.
- Purity: This one. Purity is another theme being devalued in our society. As a matter of fact, purity is often times looked upon as a weakness and a fault by our world. With so much being thrown at these kids through social media, television, and seemingly innocent YouTube videos this is no small task. We can’t protect our children from every little thing they will encounter, but we can prepare them and pray for them. Pray that they will have the strength and the wisdom to remain physically, emotionally and mentally pure for their spouse.
- Their Spouse: I don’t care if your child is a newborn or in high school. It’s never too early to be praying for the person that your child is going to marry. Here is a quick overview of what I pray for in terms of spouses for both my son and my daughter.
- For my daughter’s husband:
- A man who love’s the Lord with his whole heart
- after Jesus, he loves my daughter wholeheartedly
- Deep spiritual roots, unwavering faith
- Spiritual leader of their family
- Courageous and bold for Christ
- Financial provider for their family
- Uses his words to build up my daughter
- Faithful to their marriage
- Shepherds their children in the way of the Lord
- Loves Levi (my son) like a brother
- For my son’s wife:
- a woman who loves the Lord with all her heart
- after Jesus, she loves my son wholeheartedly
- deep spiritual roots, unwavering faith
- she has a godly submission to her husband, allowing him to lead their family
- supportive
- she works hard in her home to serve her family
- shepherds her children in the way of the Lord
- strong and faithful
- Loves Brooklynn (my daughter) like a sister
- she is a good cook and meal planner, feeds her family healthy food
- For my daughter’s husband:
- Them as Spouses: In the same way, we need to pray for our children to become good spouses. To keep it simple I pray for my son to have the same traits as those that I pray for my daughter’s husband (if that makes sense?) and vice versa for my daughter. We want our sons-in law and daughters-in-law to thank us one day, right?!
- Protection: Pray for the Lord to put his hedge of protection over your children and that he surrounds them with angels giving them wisdom in all of their decisions
- Struggles: All of our children have unique struggles. One of my children struggles with anger, while the other struggles with complaining. Customize this to fit what your child is struggling with.
- Health Concerns: Even if it’s a little cold, hand it over to God. Worrying about our children’s health concerns is not only futile, but it also distracts us from trusting in the Lord. We can’t have faith if we are busy holding onto fear
There you go. This list should simply help you get started or restarted on your journey praying for your children. Again, it does not have to look like this. It does not have to be all of this. Yours might look totally different than this or much longer. The point is whatever it looks like, just pray. Everyday. Pray for those sweet babies!
xoxo
Allison
Thank you.
I love this. Thanks for sharing. I have prayed for my children every day since before they were born. They are in their 20s now, but I’ll never stop praying for them. Thanks for including that there is no right or wrong way to pray. God knows our hearts, and I am so thankful for that.