This giveaway is now closed! Winners are commenters #2 – Katie, #7 – Becky, #11 – Summer, #16 – Tiffany, and #21 – Lisa! Check your email, Ladies!
Unfortunately, many parents feel inept in the area of prayer so they find it difficult to model before their children. But children don’t need us to have it all together in this area. What we are looking for, then, is grooves to be cut so deep in our family life that our children breathe prayer. When they are frightened, they pray, and when they are victorious, they pray. Can this be a reality? Yes. Let’s look at how we can model this, therefore, train our children to pray naturally.
First, express the desire.
“Lord, I come asking for You to make me a woman of prayer. Would You help me learn to pray and create in me an appetite for prayer? I need You, and my family needs You. Train my heart and mind to seek You.”
This is a prayer God desires to answer.
Next, we can create prayer grooves.
There is power in the repetitive rhythm of an action. My parents live out of state, and people have always marveled at how I could drive twenty-one hours from West Michigan to Austin, Texas, alone with my four young children. I often tell them, “We just find the groove in the road, put our tires in it, and drive.” Similarly, we can create prayer habits, or grooves, that with repetition become patterns.
It’s easy for us to buck the idea of ritual prayers because we believe that passionate prayer lives always involve spontaneity. We live in a culture that bucks self-discipline, but creating prayer grooves in your life creates opportunity to build consistency.
For example, what if you began committing your day to the Lord every time your alarm rang or at least as you pour your first cup of coffee? Perhaps as you drive past the local school you could pray that God would allow truth to be taught there and for the faculty to have wisdom that day. One of my friends has an app on her phone that rings every two hours prompting her to pray for students in her small group and her nephews and nieces. Now that’s using technology to glorify God.
One of my deep prayer grooves is to begin any study of the Word with a time of prayer. This means when my hands open the Scriptures, I ask for the Holy Spirit to give me wisdom, insight, and to guide me into truth. I need His leadership and insight as I have my personal devotions, as I prepare lessons, and as I teach.
Another prayer groove that runs deep in my life happens at bedtime. If I lay down with my husband and we haven’t prayed for our family, we can’t sleep. Eleven years ago my husband told me that he’d heard Dennis Rainey say that the divorce rate of couples who pray together daily is virtually zero. With a simple commitment to prayer, we could almost ensure we would stay together. This rhythm has not become dull with the repetitive nature but rather a time of sweetness and unity between us.
There’s something very powerful about scheduling prayer into your days. It reminds me that I need God to work, but it also alleviates the guilt associated with prayerlessness. At the end of the day, I’m praying about the things that matter most to me and I have filled my day with moments of seeking Him.
Children see more than we give them credit for. As we pray this way in front of them they learn how to implement it in their daily lives as well.
Be BRAVE enough to be transparent before them.
Is it time to ask for the Lord to create inside of you a passion to pray? How would implementing the ideas above help you model you prayer life to your children?
Now for the fun!
You might have heard – today is release day for Brave Moms, Brave Kids.
Brave Moms, Brave Kids is an equipping tool that will help you…
- identify the qualities present in true greatness
- reject “mommy fears” and replace them with immovable truth
- learn strategies for praying for and training your children more effectively
- develop seven key lessons we must teach our children to live for Jesus
Courage starts with YOU, Mama! I want to encourage all you mamas to be BRAVE today, so I’m giving away five copies of Brave Moms, Brave Kids, along with all the preorder gifts that won’t be available publicly after today. Comment below with a BRAVE prayer you routinely pray, or will begin praying TODAY, over your family! (If you’re reading via email, click over here to comment.) Winners will be announced Monday, February 5!
We pray every day on the way to school drop off. I pray that God will put his angels over the kids to protect them and give them a spirit of kindness and boldness. That he will bless their friendships and teachers.
SUCH great prayer requests! I pray very similarly, Mary!
I pray that by being a brave mom and a brave wife, I will be able to bring my family into the presence of Jesus daily. May He consume our hearts and lives and use us as shining beacons of His light wherever He leads us.
Yes, Katie! So thankful HE is light for the path we all are on and He makes that light shine through us. What a gift!
We thank him for his blessings in abundance. His mercy and grace. We pray for Gods wisdom and righteousness each morning., praying we put the full armer of God on as we start each day. Grateful for his all knowing, every present goodness in our lives.
Yes, the armor on to face the battle of today. So grateful with you for His all knowing, all powerful hand with our family!
We give thanks to the Lord for all of our blessings and for all of our struggles. We ask God to watch over us all as we are snuggled into our beds. We pray for everyone in need and that they can draw close to the Lord. Because when you have the Lord you have everything you need..
I pray that where I fall short in my mothering, the Lord fills those spaces.
We pray that God’s love is evident in our family and in our home. We pray that we would respond in love and grace and that we would parent our son well. We pray he would love the Lord from an early age and serve Him faithfully. We pray he would cling to the truth of God’s Word in spite of worldly influences.
On our drive to school, I pray a blessing over our family. I start by thanking God for Jesus and our provision and ask him to continue to give my husband favor and wisdom at work. I pray for each family member and our safety. I pray that my children would shine their light for Jesus and show kindness and that kindness would be shown to them. I pray that they would remember that they belong to the Lord and that they need to make decisions that honor Him. And I thank God for the blessing of a new day.
We often talk about prayer with our kiddos. They either say the same thing over and over or say “I don’t know how to do this”. We are working on praying as we go about our day together. I like the title and idea behind this book.
I pray that God will protect my children and help us all serve Him and glorify Him in everything we do.
I pray that my children will be so saturated with God, tat he will be apart of all they do. That they will make Godly choices, and that they will be so full of God’s light that it will shine brightly. .
I pray every day for my kids to be the light and love of Christ to all they encounter in their day. For them to have beautiful moments they know are from God. That they remember He dwells in them, helping them with the way to go.
Thank you for inspiring us to step up instead of check out!
I pray over my kids everyday, and even more lately! As our 11 year old has been bullied at school, I find myself in her room at night praying over her as she sleeps that God will watch over her and guide her as she deals daily with the cruelty that she has been subjected to.
I like to pray before my feet hit the floor in the morning. There are mornings I forget and need a reminder. Using the alarm on my phone is a great idea. Thank you.
We tuck our children in every night and have since the day they were born in the hospital with a prayer. It started very simple as the “Now I lay me down to sleep” prayer but we have changed over the years and have taught our girls to pray for what is bothering, upsetting them, what they are thankful for and for our family in another state they don’t often get to see. Doing this simple thing with our girls has taught me and helped me to pray openly in with others in Sunday School and with complete strangers whom I run into.
I just am praying that I won’t let fear stop me from what God has in store and that I don’t allow my fears to pass onto my children I want them to be bold!!!!
I pray that my children will strive to please God, not me. Sometimes, I may struggle with that, but they need to ultimately need to obey Him over me.
For a heart that follows hard after God, is my prayer.
Father,
Would you please protect our children and grandchildren in their body, mind, soul and spirit? May they look to You today as LORD and Savior and may they glorify You and bless others in all they think, say, and do. Thank You for your love, mercy and Faithfulness.
One prayer we have is that our kids get caught when they do wrong so they understand at a young age there are consequences for their actions.
I pray each day that my children will be a light to others and be an encouragement. I pray that God would work through them to reach others – I love how unabashedly children can act out their Faith!
I pray that our son will remain faithful to God and that our prodigal daughter will return to God.
I’ve started a prayer groove of praying on our way to school put loud for our safety and the children’s day. We also pray at dinner, not just over the meal, but of thankfulness.