This parenting job sometimes makes me wonder if I’m messing up. My own sweet mother wants to know why I let my son pierce his ear or why on earth I’d help my daughter dye her hair red. My son wants to know why I’d rather he not get a tattoo.
My husband and I both wonder what kind of lasting spiritual impact we’re leaving on our children.
We want more than anything to encourage life-long faith in our kids. We pray that our kids will live out their beliefs and follow God’s call on their lives. We want to be the best parents we can be, but we’re not always sure what to do.
After 19 years of parenting, we have more questions and tougher decisions then we did when we started! We remember the sleepless baby years, the drive-you-crazy toddler years, and the challenging elementary school years. Right now we’re in the roller coaster adolescent phase. Each stage brings joy, challenge, and questions.
I don’t know what parenting stage you’re in, but I’m sure you also want to be the best parent possible. You want to have family devotional times together, but it’s a struggle. You probably have as many questions as I do about whether or not you’re doing the right things or making the right decisions.
What I do know is this:
The most powerful thing a parent can do is pray.
When my kids were little, I prayed for them every night as I tucked them into bed. I still do that when I can manage to stay up later than they do. Now we pray together at breakfast. I also keep their names on my prayer list. Recently, God sparked me to pray a specific request for them each day of the week.
I want to share with you seven things I’m asking God for on behalf of my children.
7 Ways to Pray for Our Kids
Sunday: Relationship with God
Lord, make your presence real to my kids. Make your home in their hearts. Fill them with your Holy Spirit and with a deep sense of your love for them.
Monday: Love for God’s Word
Lord, I pray that my kids would love your Word, that they would read it, hear your voice through it, and seek to live it out.
Tuesday: Self Esteem
Heavenly Father, give my kids a sense of being fearfully and wonderfully made. May they know that in Christ, they bear your stamp of approval. Give my husband and I grace to communicate unconditional love to them.
Wednesday: God First
Over any relationship, hobby, or technological gadget, may my children give you first place in their hearts, Jesus. May pleasing you be more important than pleasing their friends.
Thursday: Integrity
Father, help them live with integrity based on obedience to your Word. Give them soft, repentant hearts, and make them transparent when they fail.
Friday: Equipped to Follow God’s Call
Lord, would you give my children a clear sense of your call on their lives as they grow and develop? Would you use their studies to equip them to follow and serve you?
Saturday: Godly Friends and a Christian Spouse
Father, bless my kids with friends who will influence them positively, and make my children an encouragement to others as well. Give them Christian mates who will encourage their faith.
Will you join me this week in praying for our kids? We may not have this parenting thing down. Sometimes we mess up, but that’s okay. God gives grace, and kids usually do too when we apologize. Half the battle is remembering that prayer is the most powerful thing a parent can do.
Now it’s your turn: What do you ask God for when you pray for your children?
Re-edited from my archives.
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I’m linking up with Holly Barrett’s #TestimonyTuesday, Kelly Balarie’s #RaRaLinkup, Holley Gerth’s Coffee for your Heart, Lyli Dunbar’s Thought-Provoking Thursday, Susan B. Mead’s #DancewithJesus, and Arabah Joy’s Grace and Truth. Check out these communities for more encouragement.
I’m with you in this prayer emphasis. Often on my way to work this summer, I have lifted my kids up to God out loud, one by one, with all the concerns that I have for them, only to conclude in the end (sigh) that the things I am most concerned about are not necessarily the things that God has in His heart for that son. We so need to give ourselves time to “pray until we pray” so that God can direct our hearts along the right channels. As usual, Betsy, you have challenged me today!
Oh, I can just hear and see you going along in your car praying out loud for each child! Beautiful!
Oh, I can just hear and see you going along in your car praying out loud for each child! Beautiful!
This is great Betsy. Thanks
Blessings to your family, Cathy!
Love this idea of praying for a different “area” each day of the week, Betsy. I pray the scriptures as I go as well as a listing Lysa Terkeurst provides. But I like yours. I’ll be printing this puppy. 😉 Thanks!
Thanks, Kristi. I love the idea of praying scriptures too. I’ll try to take a look at Lysa’s list!
Betsy,
I know that it wasn’t coincidence that Tuesday’s prayer was praying for your children’s self esteem. I have one child who really struggles in this area and so this was very appropriate. I have found that praying for my “adult” children has brought with it some of the biggest challenges because they are now dealing with the tough “grown up” issues. Thanks for sharing…
Blessings,
Bev
Oh Bev, I totally understand. My children are approaching the “young adult” phase at 19 and 17. Their problems are so much bigger than when they were small, but God is still big, isn’t He?
Thank you for these words and for knowing that there are many of us parents who feel the same way as you do. My desire has always been to make sure I didn’t mess my kids up and that they would turn out to be the best they can be while honoring God. Sounds huge and almost impossible but let me reassure you as a parent who is a little farther along than you, it can and does happen. Praying for our kids is one of the most beautiful gifts we can give them and ourselves as we facilitate their growing up years and then set them free. I love how you broke up the prayers for each day of the week. Perfect! Praying for you as you continue to watch your kids grow into who they will be.
Thanks so much, Mary. I so appreciate your encouragement, sister!
Betsy, you always have such applicable lessons. I’m about to venture into new territory as a grandmother and I already praying for him (yes we know he’s a him) along with his mom and dad, and aunt and uncle.
xoxo
Wow! A grandmother? How is that possible? 🙂 Grace and faith be yours during this new stage. Congratulations!
Betsy I love how you broke down the week and ways to pray for our children. I laughed as I read through the different years. We are past you in the years where they are in their 30s and having children.
I never stop praying for them and even crying as they walk through their own struggles of trying to conceive and have children. I even found myself on the riding mower this week praying out loud for them and an uncle just diagnosed with cancer this week.
Thank you sweet friend. I’m printing out this for my prayer notebook.
Oh Debbie, my heart goes out to you. I know that same pain for a friend. I’m sure you would have so much to teach me about parenting. Wish we could have coffee together, friend. So sorry about your uncle.
Prayer is definitely the most powerful thing, and I love how you broke down the prayer points for each day. It’s easy to get caught up in how the world sees success and to make requests along those lines, but I love that the prayer points you draw out are for the things that really matter.
Thanks so much, Carly. Blessings to you and your family!
What wise words of encouragement, friend! It’s all about our kids’ character, the spiritual legacy we’re pouring into them. Hair color, piercings, tattoos?
In the light of eternity, they just won’t matter.
You do such a great job of keeping your eye on the prize, Betsy. I only wish you had been around maybe 20 years or so ago … you would have been a super mentor to me!
;-}
Oh Linda, I’m thinking you’d be a great mentor to ME! Wish we could have coffee, friend.
I loved this, Betsy. As we enter into the new school year this is an area I want to focus more on. That and helping my elementary-aged kids develop their own walk with God. Prayer is the foundation so I’m really grateful for your guidance and practical tips.
Yes, prayer is the foundation. I’m praying now for YOUR kids, Marva, that God would give them a love for His Word.
Betsy! These are so great!
Thanks for the encouragement, Liz.
Betsy,
This is awesome! Love the different prayer focuses. I pray what you listed but not in a systematic day by day way. Your kids are truly blessed to have praying parents. Praying for you and your family. ((Hugs))
Thanks, Dolly. May the Lord bless your family as well!
Betsy, this is a wise, practical, and powerful post for any parent (and grandparent). Loved this!
Thanks, Joanne. I’m SURE you could teach me so much about prayer. I know you have at least one grandbaby.
My girls are in third and fifth grades, so this is great. Sometimes the world and its future feels overwhelming and scary, but this is specific. I love it!
I know what you mean about the world, Sarah. I’m praying now for your girls. They’re in GOD’S hands.
Betsy, love this post! Our kids need our prayers just as much, maybe more, when they head out on their own. These are the years they make life decisions and establish direction relationally, vocationally, and spiritually. Prayer is the order and need of the day. Praying with you.
Yes, I know what you mean about how maybe they need it even MORE after they leave home. I know I was much more motivated to pray for my son then.
Beautiful list, Betsy, and a great reminder. Each stage of parenting is absolutely different and absolutely challenging. Now in the grown, married children and grandparent stage, I still agree: The most powerful thing a parent/grandparent can do is PRAY! Stopping by today from Grace and Truth.
Thanks, Deborah! You don’t look like a grandmother to me! When I get confused or worried as a parent, I try to remind myself of the simple power of prayer. 🙂
I love the list of specific prayer prompts you shared. Love it. And I have been thinking about the power of prayer in our kids lives as a catalyst for change. Our daughter will be 21 next week. CRAZY! Where did time go. We have a senior in high school and our youngest is a freshman. Again…CRAZY! And in the midst of their independence and changing and growing and leaving us more, I found that the only real thing I can do that influences them more than my example of loving them well, is praying. Lately, I have been praying for His mercy in their lives and that they would be ones who seek Him first in all things and are not influenced by the world around them.
Thanks for the reminder to spend as much time as I can, and more , on my knees.
Blessings,
Dawn
Yes, Dawn, I know what you mean about prayer and example being the only real thing you can do to influence them. It’s so much more noticeable when the y’re on their own and further from our influence. Another reader said the same thing. 🙂
Wonderful prayers, friend. I’m right with you on all of them but especially that last one because, frankly, I am ready for my son to find a “help mate”!!! LOL.
I have a prayer for him hanging from a post-it note on my desk. It’s filled with Scripture and prompts me to pray for him every day.
Enjoyed connecting with you today! Have a great weekend, friend!
Oh Ruthie, I understand a bit. I prayed 9 years for a sister, started in earnest when she was 24, and she has a lovely husband now. God will show himself faithful.
Oh Betsy, I just live this! The practical prayers are a wonderful idea & resource for others!! Great idea & thanks for sharing!!
Thanks for reading, Jill.
What a fabulous post, Betsy!
I’m sharing this one on FB tomorrow and on Twitter and Pinterest today!
Sure am blessed by you~
Melanie
Thanks, Melanie. Your friendship blesses me too.
This is awesome, Betsy!! I love a good laid out plan for praying. I will definitely be writing these down! Thanks for your encouragement. I’m smack in the middle of littles and teenagers, which is quite a task some days. Prayer is definitely what helps me through! Linking up with you at Dance With Jesus.
Wow, Alisa! Teens and littles! That does sound challenging. Grace to you, friend.
I love these, Betsy! I found myself saying, YES, LORD, for my kiddos as I prayed through these. I love the idea of praying a specific thing over them each day of the week. I’m going to print this off!
I prayed this way for several years. Right now, I’m actually doing something else to pray for my kids, using a chart in my prayer journal, but I’m going to go back to this myself!
What a great idea to pray for a specific area each day of the week! I’d never thought of that before. My husband Jon and I do pray for and with our kids every day. Something I learned from Phil Robertson on Duck Dynasty, of all people: pray for your children’s salvation, purity, etc. in front of them. Show them that you are praying before a Holy God the things you are asking them to do/not do. It just adds a bit of weightiness when your kids understand that you are serious enough about things to pray about those things in front of them. Maybe other parents are already doing this, but it was a “wow, we should be doing that, too” moment for us.
Thanks for that input, Julie. That’s a really good idea I’d never heard of. Blessings to your family.
I love this!! What a fabulous idea! I need to become more intentional with my prayers for my kids. I always pray as life comes and their needs change – and always for their relationship with Christ to grow. But that’s not INTENTIONAL enough. I love these prayers – and my kids could use each one!! Saving this one!
I think ANY PRAYER for our kids is good, Rebecca, but I learned something from Mark Batterson in The Circle Maker: think about what you really want God to do and pray that way! It takes some effort to think through, but it’s worth it!
Oh, Betsy! You are So right. Our kids NEED our prayers. I need to remember this more often when I try too hard to do it all myself. I really just need to step aside and give God some room to work! I love how you broke the prayers up into manageable daily chunks. Great idea!
Oh I know what you mean about trying too hard to do it all ourselves! I found myself doing that while my son was preparing for his trans-world trip back to America for college. I was trying to hard to make everything easy. I need to rest and pray myself. I’m sure you could teach me lots!
What a great idea, Betsy! I love this. Thanks so much for sharing your prayers with us. It gives me greater peace to know that God is always present with them even when I can not be.