Praying For Our Children

We explore a simple, organized approach that helps mothers pray faithfully and purposefully for their children.

By NANCY BRINKERHOFF

Read Time: 4 minutes

Do you ever wonder how the Apostle Paul kept track of his prayer list? He promises dozens of individuals and ecclesias that he prays for them regularly, and of course, we assume he did. Are we to imagine him with an ever-growing list on one of those parchments he carried with him? Or did Paul’s early training as a Pharisee leave him with enough memory tricks that he didn’t need to write everything down?

Obviously, Paul did not leave his system on record. Nor would it help us much two millennia later if he had. But what we certainly are given is a clear picture of someone who took his responsibility seriously to pray for those in his care. As a mom, I find this inspiring.

When my own children were young, I came across a book from a Christian (non-Christadelphian) author about praying for our children that I found enormously impactful. The Power of a Praying Parent, by Stormie Omartian, offers a straightforward, systematic approach to our private prayers. Although we fundamentally disagree with the author, we can appreciate the practical organization, the habits she encourages, and the attitude her suggestions help create. Thus, the following summary and book review are offered as part of the “Tidings Moms’ Project,” an ongoing effort to highlight spiritually useful resources.

The core of the book is 30 chapters, each detailing one specific aspect of our children’s lives to pray about. Examples include “Protection from Harm,” “Attracting Godly Friends,” and “Seeking Wisdom and Discernment.” Each chapter contains the author’s thoughts and anecdotes about the topic, a model prayer that could be used verbatim, and a list of Bible passages either about the subject itself or showing how individuals from the Bible prayed about it.

The 30 topics lend themselves naturally to days of the month. Parents could commit to praying about “Identifying God-Given Gifts and Talents” (chapter 15) on the 15th of every month, for example, and “Learning Repentance” (chapter 27) on the 27th. She also notes other possible uses, such as focusing on each area for a week or gathering with other parents for an extended time of prayer together.

Some will enjoy Omartian’s 30 chapters and example prayers, either alone or with a group of other moms. Other readers may most appreciate the collection of Bible verses for each topic. And others may simply wish to adopt the organizing principle for themselves.

If you would like to bring this structure to your own prayers for your children, I highly recommend the exercise. Set aside some time to brainstorm aspects of your kids’ lives you wish to remember in prayer. This approach could also be a worthwhile activity for a moms’ group or a sisters’ class. The table of contents of Omartian’s book is a great starting point, but you will likely identify other prayer areas specific to your family’s circumstances. Copy your list into a notebook or prayer journal (I now use an app on my phone).

And start praying today! What is listed as the prayer for today’s date? Stop and say a prayer for that aspect of your children’s lives. Sometimes, if several days have gone by since I last used my prayer list, I will pray for several days at once. Sometimes I just skip down to today’s date. Those prayers I listed so long ago are often exactly the reminder I need myself, totally separate from God’s work with my kids.

The value of this system really hit me on a memorable afternoon, years ago, when I was still homeschooling. I had sat down to pray while my daughters had quiet time, feeling a little irritated after a rough morning of fighting over math. I opened my prayer journal—still a physical book in those pre-digital years—and saw the prayer I had written down for the day: that my kids would grow to love learning. It was such a great reminder of why we had decided to homeschool in the first place! Math had never been the goal. I had just let myself forget for a moment. Prayer is for the pray-er as much as the prayed-for, isn’t it?

As our girls have grown, I value this monthly prayer list even more. Every month of their lives, I prayed they would learn to be good friends with each other, and I think of it often on nights I fall asleep to the sound of their giggling together. For years, I prayed for “future sons-in-law” without knowing exactly who I was praying for, simply that those little boys would grow up in the same challenging world my girls were in. Not long ago, one of those young men I had prayed for every month of his life joined our family—a beautiful example of an answered prayer.

Of course, whenever an author comes from a different perspective than ours, there will be areas of disagreement. The most obvious one in this work is the author’s conviction that our children’s troubles come from a supernatural devil, rather than from our own self-sabotaging human nature. But despite this, I found her observations quite thought-provoking and her prayer suggestions helpful.

In prayer, Omartian notes, “We declare ourselves to be in full partnership with God,” recognizing our role and His. “He would shoulder the heaviness of the burden and provide wisdom, power, protection and ability far beyond ourselves. We would do our job to discipline, teach, nurture and train up a child in the way he should go.”¹ In prayer, “We become the vessel through which His power flows. When we pray, we bring that power to bear on everything we are praying about, and we allow the power of God to work through our powerlessness.”²

May we learn to grow in our own appreciation of our Father’s power as we pray for our children!

Nancy Brinkerhoff,
Denver Ecclesia, CO