Next year, my oldest son will be a senior in high school.
Let that sink in for a minute…I’ve been doing online ministry in this space since he was about four years old, and I became a faithful praying mom a couple years before that. That’s approximately 15 years that I’ve been intentionally, thoughtfully, and strategically praying scripture over him, and over his younger brother (who will be a 9th grader next year).
15 years.
From this:
To this:
I look at those pictures and I can’t even believe how far we’ve come. They’re not little boys anymore. They’re young men. And while I have prayed faithfully for them almost every day of their lives, I feel a sense of urgency now that I haven’t felt before. Probably because I know my time is short. In the beginning, when I first began begging God to do a work in us, time felt like it was going on forever. Not now. For the last year or so, at every holiday or special event, I’ve thought, “only two more Christmases with my oldest in high school.” Or, “only a couple more family vacations before everything changes.” And while he is most likely heading to Community College for a couple years before branching out (which means more time at home!), I feel absolutely compelled to pray in a new way.
Truth be known, that’s the real reason I created these new resources. For me. For my kids. Honestly, that’s the source of of almost everything I produce. I need it first, and then I think maybe you do, too.
Introducing a new series of topical prayer guides, “Praying for Your Child.”
To be clear, these are not prayer journals. They’re prayer guides. There are no journal pages or blank spaces for writing (although I suppose you could use the margins), and they do not follow the exclusive, Think, Pray, Praise method of our Everyday Prayers line of journals. In my own life, I wanted scripture-inspired prayers right at my fingertips for specific topics. Something I could leaf through quickly and find exactly what to pray. Something that would meet my needs right now. And because I have kids who are teenagers, I decided to start with wisdom and maturity in Christ.
Praying for Your Child to Have Wisdom
I started with wisdom, because for many years now, I’ve told my children there are basically only two types of people—the foolish and the wise.
The foolish man says in his heart, “there is no God,” (Psalm 53:1) and does as he pleases all his days. The wise man fears the Lord, and follows Him (Proverbs 1:7).
Which do you want your child to be—foolish or wise?
More than almost anything, I want my children to have wisdom. The Proverbs are filled with wisdom for Christian living, and serve as a guide, helping us know how to make decisions, which paths to take, and how to understand the life God has called us to live as believers. Doesn’t that sound exactly like what you want God to accomplish in your child’s heart? It certainly is mine. Especially because they’re getting ready to be adults. They need wisdom now more than ever. But don’t be “fooled.” (See what I did, there??). One of the things I’ve grown to love about praying God’s Word back to Him is that I can pray for things now that my children might not need until years later. If your kids are young, it isn’t too early to start praying for wisdom.
Praying for Your Child to Mature in Christ
Maturing in their faith is the second item on every Christian parent’s prayer list for their child, right under salvation.
When my children were little, I often found myself wishing away the time, longing for the day when their faith would match mine, and their eyes would be open to see what I could see. It isn’t wrong to want our children to have our perspective, but I had forgotten how long it took me to get there myself! I didn’t understand everything there is to know about God when I was four, or fourteen, twenty-four, or even forty-four. In fact, I’ll leave this world with an incomplete picture of who God is.
So will you. So will our children.
And while we can be sure that the goal really is to grow and mature in Christ, each of us will do it at a different pace. We might not be able to control the pace of the journey God has our children on, but we can pray and ask Him to keep it moving toward Him.
These two topics—wisdom and maturity in Christ—are what I feel called to pray for right now. That’s why I chose them as the first resources in this new topical prayer guide library. But I believe their usefulness goes way beyond my own teenagers. Every single child (and dare I say, every single adult) needs wisdom, and needs to grow up in their faith.
About the Guides
These guides, and the topics that will come after them (Praying for Your Child to Launch Well releases early June) are comprised of 30 key verses and passages from the Bible related to the topic you see on the cover. Inside, you’ll find a section on how to use the resource followed by a brief introduction to the topic of that guide designed to give a sort of biblical foundation or perspective as you dive into praying. Everything about these guides is intentionally short and to the point.
How to Purchase the Guides
It’s simple. You can purchase these topical prayer guides one of two ways:
- As a stand alone product. New guides will be released each month. You can simply purchase the ones that meet your current needs as they publish for just $7 a piece, OR…
- You can purchase ALL of them as a part of our Patreon membership for just $5 a month.
When you purchase the guides individually, they’ll be automatically delivered to your inbox. You can print them out, put them in a binder (like I did above) and use them to pray scripturally and thoroughly over your child in that area, or you can pull them up on your phone or device any time you want to do the same thing.
When you purchase the guides as a part of our Patreon membership (the less expensive option up front), you’ll not only get access to the topic we release that month, but also the back library of guides that have already been produced. That means you get BOTH the wisdom and maturity in Christ guides right away, and if your payments are good for next month, you’ll get the launching well guide, too! Seriously, the better deal, AND if you pay your membership fee for the entire year up front, you get one month free. Win/win!
Join me today as we pray God’s powerful Word back to Him on behalf of our children. God’s Word is living and active (Hebrews 4:12) and won’t return void. It will do exactly what God wants it to do in the hearts of our children (Isaiah 55:11). There is literally no better thing to pray, so pray it confidently, and be filled with faith in the God Who is able to mold your children into the men and women He’s called them to be.
Together,
