How to Pray for Our Children

We have the privilege to have a new guest poster today. Kathie Morrissey writes on her blog Character Corner. She is a stay-at-home mom of 8 wonderful kids, and has been homeschooling for 27 years. 

How to Pray for Our Children

by Kathie Morrissey (reprinted in part with permission)

I still remember a particularly “bad” day I had with the kids when they were younger.  It was just ONE OF THOSE DAYS!  It seemed as though the kids were out to break every rule, and they had forgotten everything I’d been trying to teach them.  It felt as though all I did that day was correct and discipline.  (If you have several young children, I’m sure you can relate to this!)

By supper time I was feeling tired, frustrated, and discouraged.  I questioned whether all my efforts to teach and train them made any difference.  It sure didn’t seem to be helping.

As these thoughts flooded my mind, the Lord quietly reminded me of two things.

• First, those negative thoughts were false and were coming from the devil.
• Second, all through the day with all of the frustration, I never took the time to pray and ask God for His help!

My efforts were failing, because I forgot to seek His help.

Usually I pray for the kids first thing in the morning, and ask God for His wisdom as I begin the day.  When I forget, I can tell.

Prayer does make a difference! (tweet this)

My husband drives a truck for work, and in that time alone he has made it a practice to pray for each of the kids, and for me.  Sometimes (after ‘one of those days’) when he comes home I will ask him, “Did you forget to pray for us today?”  When he replies yes, I’m not surprised.  I can tell the difference.  Other times he asks me how the day went and I tell him things went well – the kids were good, etc.  This time he’s not surprised, because he had been praying for us.

It’s surprising how often we talk about prayer,
yet how easily we forget to use it when in need. (tweet this)

(And we’re always in need of God’s power!) Regardless of how much effort we put into teaching and training our children, without prayer we won’t see the results we desire.

God takes what we do, and uses it in our kids’ lives to produce fruit.
(tweet this)

  Unless the Lord builds the house,
the builders labor in vain (Psalm 127:1, NIV)

How or what should we pray for our kids?

Do you get stuck after, “God bless Junior”?  If so, here are a few ideas of things to include as you pray for them:

To find out our Kathie’s ideas of how to pray for children please go to Character Corner.