Praying for Your Child's Purpose in Life

December 2020

“For I know the plans I have got you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” -Jeremiah 29:11 

When we think about praying for our child’s purpose in life we need to remember that God loves our children more than we do and that He has a plan for each one of them. We need to be alert of any opportunities that may come around to teach our children the truth about God. and to give them the confidence and hope in their future when they put God first in their lives. The bible uses ordinary people to do great things all throughout the Bible just like the story of Esther. She was an ordinary Jewish girl but God had big plans for her. We need to help our kids look past their limitations and to put their trust full in God. 

Our job as parents is to equip our children and it is God’s job to call them to their path. As parents, we should be paying attention to our kids' gifts, then taking opportunities to teach them how God could use their gifts in their futures. It is easy though, to confuse our job with God’s. We may try to guide our children down a certain career path or take over the family business. We need to see our kids how God sees them and adjust ourselves with God’s plan for our kids lives. 

As we pray for our children’s future, Jean Flemming wrote out a few things we should remember as we pray. They are the following: 

Acknowledge- God has his hand on their lives, even before they were born. 

Admit- any areas we might resent in the way God put our children together. 

Accept- God’s design for each child, thanking him for how he made our child. 

Affirm- God’s purpose in creating our children is for his glory. 

Ally- ourselves with God in his plan for their lives. (Flemming, Jean, 1996)

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Prayers you can use:

Heavenly Father…

Let _____ be careful and wise in how he lives, making the most of every opportunity and understanding your will for his life. 

Ephesians 5:15-17

Fulfill every good purpose in _____’s life and every act prompted by her faith, so that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in her life. 

2 Thessalonians 1:11-12 

No matter what ____ is planning in his heart, let your purpose prevail in his life. 

Proverbs 19:21

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Citations:

Berndt, Jodie. Praying the Scriptures for Your Children. (Grand Rapids, Michigan; Zodervan, 2001) 199

A Mother's Heart; A Look at Values, Vision, and Character for the Christian Mother. (Colorado Springs; NavPress, 1996), 89. 

Praying for Your Relationship with Your Child

November 2020

If we go way back to Deuteronomy, we can see that God cares for our relationships with our children. Deuteronomy 5:16 Says “ Honor your father and mother, so that you may live long in the land that Lord your God is giving you”. This relationship with our children will play a large role in their relationship with God. Once our children learn how to love, trust, and obey us as parents, it will then lead to them to learn how to love, trust and obey God. Taking time to pray for our relationship with our children also invites God to bless our lives and fulfill His promise to us. 

You may ask what about if we have a difficult child. How are we to have a relationship with them? Our job as parents is to simply love them and let God do the rest. Jodie Berndt states that “ Love is a decision, not an emotion. Prayerfully purposing to follow your head rather than your heart can help you love your children- even when they act more like porcupines than children” (pg. 189). We can always pray, asking God to show us how to best love our children. 

It is also important to be a good example to your children. They will see how you prayerfully depend on God. Eventually they will see past your weakness and see how you rely on God for your strength. This will also show them you are human and not some higher power they can’t relate to. 

Another way to have a good relationship with your children is to pray and ask God to make you the wife and mother He wants you to be. We don’t need to just pray asking God to shape our children, we need to be asking God to shape us too.We can also find an older mother who has a relationship with their children like one you would like to have with yours. Watch what she does then turn those into prayers. Titus 2:3-4 “Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior not slanders or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the younger women to love their husbands and children.” Older women are supposed to be looking out and trying to help younger wives and moms. And always be on the lookout  to be helping other moms too.

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Three examples of prayers you can use for yourself is, to ask God to give you time with your kids and to have an eagerness to spend time together. Ask God to help you see discipline as a gift rather than a necessary evil. And ask God to show you how to point your kids toward Jesus.

Prayers you can use: 

Heavenly Father:

Cause _____ to obey us, for this is right. Let him honor us, his father and mother, so that it may go well with him and that he may enjoy a long life on earth. —Ephesians 6:4 

Let _____ listen to his father’s instructions, and never forsake his mother’s teaching. Let _____ love wisdom and therefore bring joy to our hearts. —Proverbs 1:8 ; 29:3 

Turn our hearts toward our children, and our children’s hearts toward us. —Malachi 4:6 

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Join us on Wednesday, November 18th at 9:30am for the Next Generations Prayer meeting.

For more scripture based prayers for this topic please email me amoll@harvestpittsburghnorth.org 

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Citation:

Berndt, Jodie; Praying the Scriptures For your Children. 2001. 

Relief in Thailand

Recently, Barnabas reached out to us to let us know what a storm recently ruined the roof of multiple building within the ministry.

Through your generous giving, we were able to send extra relief for them in August to assist in repairs. Barnabas put the money to great use, fixing many ministry buildings, as well as some homes AND had some extra to help some individuals who have been struggling during COVID-19.

Check out the Relief Report to see photos and read about the different people helped with this gift.

Pastor Appreciation Month! (Blog Entry.)

For Pastor Appreciation month, here's a little tribute to my pastor. 

Pastor Bob Huber went to glory on July 4 this year, or to put it as he referred to a believer's death: he graduated. And while I can say so much about his impact on me with his teaching, I think more of his impact was felt through things I observed. 

For example…

One particular snowy Wednesday night at North Street Christian Church, many many years ago, one of his grandsons (who shall remain unnamed, I'll call him “Abe”) got into a bit of trouble. I guess if “Preachers' Kids” are notoriously mischievous, “Preachers' Grandkids” must be worse...? We were holding our weekly kids' program and Abe (who must have been around 5-7 years old) was wondering the halls of the church. He asked his teacher for a restroom break, but told any adult who stopped him in the halls that “his class took a field trip walking to the park without him”. (Not likely, it was snowy, dark, and about 12 degrees outside.) So he basically blew off most of the evening by lying to both sides. 

After the classes dismissed and people were slowly filtering out of the church, I was walking by Abe being “disciplined” by Pastor Bob: “You have to stay in your class, you can't be lying to people and wondering around by yourself...” - trying to sound as stern and serious as possible. 

Abe listened, and while Pastor Bob was still talking, Abe put his little hands on Pastor Bob's cheeks and squished them together, essentially giving Pastor Bob “fish lips”, and Abe just very calmly and sweetly said, “Awwww. You are such a cutey-pie.”

I could see Pastor Bob breaking. Then he was stifling his laughter – discipline time was officially ineffective... and over. 

What did this anecdote teach me? Nothing ultra profound or deep, but a reminder of something that will change your life if you let it: you don't always have to take yourself so seriously. 

I'm still learning. Miss you, PB. 

jeff

-not a cutie-pie, in the traditional sense