On parenting & prayer

We were driving home. It was dark and I could only see the outline of his face from the light of the streetlights.

He told me how the other day he had the thought, “I can always make sure he has a bed to sleep in, and I can teach him to play soccer, but I can’t make him love Jesus.”

He shared about the phrase we always heard from parents when we ourselves were young - how there’s nothing better than knowing your children are walking with God.

And he said how he gets it now - the overwhelming yearning, the great longing to see our own little boys following hard and fast after Jesus.

We can’t make it happen.

No set of rules will guarantee the result.

No formula is fool proof.

We came to this conclusion then, together, that the very best work we have to do is the prayers that we pray, even more than the things that we do.

Because the hearts of our boys are not in our hands but the hands of our God. He is the only one that can soften and change a human heart to love and desire our Creator.

Are we pouring in the effort? Are we bathing them in prayer more than anything else.

When we tuck them in at night, I ask Jesus…

…To give them a soft heart that is moldable by His voice.

…To put people in their paths that will point them His way.

…To help them to trust when the way gets hard.

…To give them the courage to obey even when others do not.

…To fill them with wisdom, that they would bless those who they are with.

…To love Him more than anything that this world tries to offer them.

They are His and they are in His hands, but I have been given the role of the keeper of their little lives, and that gives me a special and beautiful opportunity to bring them daily to Christ, in prayer, in my own actions, in the way I train them in the very smallest of moments.

May we be faithful and may the Lord fill the gaps when we are not.

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If you find yourself wanting to pray more intentionally for your kiddos, I created something that I hope will help you in this endeavor. You can find it here.