“‘… so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.’” Isaiah 55:11 (ESV)
As my daughter celebrates her 9th birthday today, there is something I’ve come to realize I need to guard against as a mom. I sometimes want to be God in my kids’ lives. I want to write their stories. I want to set the course for their futures. I want to determine what’s best for them. I want to prevent them from ever being hurt. That’s what mothers do. Mother knows best, right? I want to be their provider and protector. And I want to be the one to set anyone straight who messes with my kids. Can you relate on any level? I think most moms can. We love these people God has entrusted to us more than we ever knew possible. And despite all the infant-stage sleepless nights, toddler tantrums, tween eye rolling, and the teen decisions in case that are ahead that can break our hearts slap in two … they are ours. To love. To lead. To launch. And we want to make it all good. But then things happen so beyond our control we eventually have to face the reality that we aren’t God. And we can’t operate as if we are. So what do we do with that gap where our mommy capabilities end and trusting God begins? Where my kids are concerned, I want to trust God with everything beyond my control. But it’s so scary. It feels so risky. And scary and risky are two words we moms don’t want as part of our kids’ lives. So, how do we deepen our trust in God? How do we make peace with the limits of what we can and cannot protect our children from? What do we do with the risky and scary feelings that can make a mom lose sleep at best and feel crazed with fear at worst? We must fill that gap with the only thing that bridges the space between our limitations and our trust in God: prayer. I know, I know. That answer can sound like such a cliché Christian answer. Typical. Too hyper-spiritual. Not the answer we want sometimes. But prayer is the only possibility with real possibility.
Yesterday, I came across a devotional by Brooke McGlothlin wrote a devotion about scriptural prayers for boys. It inspired me to write some specific scriptural prayers for my girls. Purity means choosing to love God more than you love anything or anyone else, and expressing that love by wholeheartedly devoting your life to God. It’s important to pursue purity because the more pure you become, the more you’ll grow into the person God intends you to become.
1 Corinthians 3:16 16 Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?
Ephesians 5:1-3 1 Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children 2 and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. 3 But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people.
It’s never too early to start teaching them on how to stay pure for God and start praying for their purity, their relationship with God and their future. The Bible instructed us to “Train up a child the way he should go.” according to Provebs 22:6. We are to teach them how to walk in true purity before God. The time is now! Even if you don’t have children yet nor married. If you desire to be married and have children, begin to cover your future spouses and children now. The devil is busy, friends! See [John 10:10]
Here are some powerful prayers that I pray to help fight for the heart of my daughters:
1. Let them learn early in life that to obey You, God, is the best way to the life their hearts truly desires (1 Samuel 15:22).
2. May they find comfort in Your ability, God, to reach them, hold them and rescue them (2 Samuel 22:17-18).
3. Let them find confidence in You, God, even when hard times come and they don’t know what to do, by keeping their eyes fixed on You (2 Chronicles 20:12).
4. May they keep themselves under control and not give full vent to people and situations that anger them (Proverbs 29:11).
5. I pray that God will shape their character and turn their weaknesses to strengths.
6. I pray that God guard theirs hearts, help them to stay pure, live holy for you and keep the enemy way from their hearts, minds, bodies and spirits. 2 Corinthians 7:1 Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.
7. I pray that God help them walk in the security of His assigned worth to them. Give them a strong work ethic and health to accomplish all their tasks. Give them a heart that desires to extend their hands to those in need. Protect them for the right husband, a man of respect and godly honor. And let them be a woman of joy and laughter whose Christ-centered character is what makes them most beautiful (Proverbs 31).
8. Help them to fix their thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. –Philippians 4:8
9. Help them to know their self-worth, that they are beautiful inside and out and they are enough. They are beautiful and wonderfully made, loved and valued by God.
10. Help them to live their lives on purpose, use their gifts and talents to honor you, don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform them into a new person by changing the way they think. – Romans 12:2
11. Help them to know who’s and whom they are. That their relationship with you is the most important. No man can help filled the void or emptiness in their hearts, only you can. You first loved them, you knew them before they were even born, in my womb you knitted them. They are lack nothing because you are their shepherd and their future is bright and secured in you and through you.
This prayer list may seem long, trust me, there is more. Feel free to make this your own if you find it useful and add more….but I trust and believe that God hears my prayers and amazingly powerful things will happen in the lives of my daughters. I can still fret and worry and want to mess with anyone who messes with my girls. My girls still make mistakes, cross lines and give the principal reasons to call me. But where would we be if the power of the One who answers our prayers wasn’t in the mix of our lives? I can testify to that for trying to raise them on my own as a full time working single mom for the last few years. Lord knows, I can’t be everywhere and at every place! And what might these prayers be working out for my daughters’ futures that I won’t see for years to come? Yes, prayer is the only possibility with real possibility. And that brings me to the place where I can finally say … “Hello, my name is Mom. Not God.”
Let’s cover our children in prayer daily. Speak life into them now and remind them of the promises that God has for their lives.
Dear Lord, I know that Your Word does not return void and I’m believing great things for my daughters today. You know my heart and you promised to perfect that which concerns me; Your mercy, O Lord, endures forever; Do not forsake the works of Your hands. May we grow in our relationship with You, obey your words, follow your will and live a holy, pure and acceptable to you and for you. In Jesus’ Name, Amen
