Most of the prayers we pray for our kids are selfish. You know what I mean. You’re worried about one of your kids. Maybe it’s a health crisis, but usually it’s a moral or relational issue. So you pray for them. That’s what loving parents do.
But, if we’re really honest, our prayers are also based in self-preservation. We’re scared. We know what we were like at their age, and it wasn’t pretty.
We want everything to be OK. We want our kid’s lives to be happy so ours will be happy. We just want life to be good. (Don’t deny it. You know you’re selfish like that. I’m not the only one who goes through this.)
Well, life can be good even when it looks bad.
Because bad is when God works best.
So here’s five ways to pray for your kids or grandkids that provide the inner security you need to know that everything’s going to be fine. (And there’s no age limit on these prayers. Even if your kid is forty, these prayers are the best ever.)
5 selfish ways to pray for your kids
1. Your kid is involved with drugs, unmarried sex, and other things the Bible calls “ungodliness and worldly passions” — Pray that God’s grace will become the best teacher your kid has ever known (see Titus 2:11,12).
2. Your kid is depressed, lonely, and without direction in life — Pray that he will run into the off-the-charts awesomeness of God’s plans for him described in Ephesians 1:17-19.
3. Your kid is being bullied — Surround him with God’s promise from Isaiah 41:10-13.
4. Your kid doesn’t know the Lord — Pray that God will show himself according to Isaiah 43:10-11.
5. Your kid has a broken heart — Pray God’s anointing of beauty, joy, praise, and the binding of wounds for your son or daughter (see Isaiah 61:1-3).
God is faithful. Even when kids aren’t. Even when parents aren’t. God’s promises rest on his faithfulness and love, not on how perfectly you pray or how well you parent. Trust Jesus in this. Really.
Want more? Check out these posts on how to pray for your kids.
Until Monday! Susan
P.S. We’re having a bunch of folks over for Sunday-after-church bar-b-que this weekend. I hope your weekend is full of special people too.
“Jesus likes it when we share.” -Adelaide, age 3: Pass this along to everybody and their brother. OK, maybe not everybody’s brother, but you know . . . all of your friends would be nice.