Praying Momma

Lately, I've been leading....and I use that term very lightly.....a Mom's prayer group for my son's high school during football season.  By leading, I mean...I bug people about coming....post to our facebook page.....and show up to pray. 

Ya know....I don't know if the others who join me each week feel the way I do...but it has really gotten me to dig deeper and be more mindful of my praying habits....especially for our children.  There is something I’ve come to realize that I need to guard against as a mom. I sometimes want to be God in my kids’ lives.  Yes, you read that right.  I admit it...

I want to write their stories.  I want to set the courses of their futures. I want to determine what’s best for them. I want to prevent them from ever being hurt. I want to be their provider and protector. And I want to be the one to set anyone straight who messes with my kids.

I'm sure there are many than can relate on nearly every point. I think most moms can. We love these people entrusted to us more than we ever knew possible. And despite all the infant sleepless nights, toddler tantrums, tween eye rolling, and the teen decisions that break our heart slap in two… they are ours. To love. To lead. To LAUNCH.

And we want to make it all good.

But then things happen so beyond our control. We eventually have to face the reality that we aren’t God. And we can’t operate like we are.  So what do we do with that gap where our mommy capabilities end and trusting God begins? I want to trust God with everything beyond my control with my kids but it is SO scary.  So risky.  And scary and risky are two words us moms don’t want as part of our kids’ lives.

So, how do we deepen our trust in God? How do we make peace with the limits of what we can and cannot protect them from? What do we do with the risky and scary feelings that can make a mom lose sleep at best and feel crazed with fear at worst?

We must fill that gap with the only thing that bridges the space between our limitations and our trust in God… prayer.  I know, I know – that can sound like such a cliché Christian answer. Typical. Too hyper-spiritual. Not the answer we want sometimes.

But prayer is the only possibility with real possibility.  As a praying mom, I've seen amazingly powerful things happen in the lives of my children. I can still fret and worry and want to mess with anyone who messes with them.  I can go from gentle to full on NINJA in 2.5 seconds flat. My kids still make mistakes, and cross lines, and give me reason to make my neighbors wonder if I scream constantly??

But where would we all be if the power of prayer wasn’t in the mix of our lives?  And what might these prayers be working out for their futures that I won’t see for years to come?

I came across these scriptures in my research for ways to PRAY for my kiddos....

10 Powerful Prayers to Help You Fight for the Heart of Your Son:

1. Create in my son a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within him (Psalm 51:10).

2. May my son walk after You, God, and fear You and keep Your commandments and obey Your voice. May he serve You and hold fast to You (Deuteronomy 13:4).

3. May my son be strong and courageous and not fear or be in dread, for it is You, Lord, our God, who goes with him. You will never leave him or forsake him (Deuteronomy 31:6).

4. May my son walk before You, God, as King David walked, with integrity of heart and uprightness, doing according to all that You have commanded him and keeping Your statutes and rules (1 Kings 9:4).

5. Like Timothy, may my son be an example to believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, and in purity (1 Timothy 4:12).

6. May my son listen to the way of wisdom and be led in the paths of uprightness (Proverbs 
4:11).

7. Lord, be with my son in trouble; rescue him and honor him (Psalm 91:5).

8. May my son honor his father and mother… (Ephesians 6:2).

9. May my son have love that ensues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith (1 Timothy 1:5).

10. May my son think on whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is commendable; if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, may he think about these things (Philippians 4:8).

10 Powerful Prayers to Help You Fight for the Heart of Your Daughter:

1. Give my daughter a deep desire to listen to You, Lord, and pray often, “What message does my Lord have for his servant?” (Joshua 5:14b).

2. Let her learn early in life that to obey You, God, is the best way to the life her heart truly desires, (1 Samuel 15:22).

3. May she find comfort in Your ability, God, to reach her, hold her, and rescue her, (2 Samuel 22:17-18).

4. May she please You, Lord, by desiring, asking for, and utilizing a discerning heart full of wisdom, (1 Kings 3:9-12).

5. Let her find confidence in You, God, even when hard times come and she doesn’t know what to do, by keeping her eyes fixed on You, (2 Chronicles 20:12).

6. Give her a great desire to accept Your word, God, and store up Your commands within her so her ears will turn to Your wisdom, (Proverbs 2:1-2).

7. May she keep herself under control and not give full vent to people and situations that anger her, (Proverbs 29:11).

8. Give her the ability to rise above the traps of people pleasing so she can be kept safe by trusting You, Lord, (Proverbs 29:25).

9. Let her walk in the security of Your assigned worth to her. Give her a strong work ethic and health to accomplish all her tasks. Give her a heart that desires to extend her hand to those in need. Protect her for the right husband, a man of respect and godly honor. And let her be a woman of joy and laughter whose Christ-centered character is what makes her most beautiful, (Proverbs chapter 31).

10. And every time you, Jesus, whisper, “Follow me” she does so with great grace, (Matthew 4:19).


Aren't these wonderful guides??

Sometimes, I don’t feel like we’re on the same team anymore, my kiddos and I.  And it breaks my heart.  My Sam is almost 18.  Like REALLY, in 6 DAYS....almost.  And he is making decisions about college.  About his future.  Syd is headstrong.  A darling child but with a mean streak a mile long when her "teenage moods" kick in.  She can look at me with a “heels dug in” kind of glare. I know if I said, “the sky is blue on a sunny day” she would try to prove me wrong.

On days like those, when she’s arguing with everything I say and trying her 15-year-old hormonal best to do things HER way, it seems I’m fighting against her—like there’s a war going on in my house between me and my daughter, and a distance between us I want to bridge no matter the cost.

I know from my education that this process of differentiation is pretty normal. Boys ache for independence from momma, and feel ready to “boldly go where no man has gone before.” They want to be strong, assert their opinions, and explore their own ideas. Sydney is just Sydney.  Teenage.  Female.  A Monster.  Unfortunately, at the Baker House for Kids, we’re living in the in-between season— where ideas abound before they are mature enough to handle the responsibilities that go along with those ideas.

And so we butt heads. And often.

Sometimes, I’m tempted to let our circumstances tell me my kids are the enemy—THEY are the ones I’m fighting. But then I remember…They re the ones I'm fighting FOR!!  When the days of mothering grow long, and make a girl weary, and when what you really want to do is lock your kids up in their nasty teenage rooms that require "Haz Mat" suits...and throw away the key, it’s good to remember this:

They are not our enemy.

But there IS, in fact... an enemy.  That’s right, our kids have a real enemy—one that wants to kill, steal and destroy them (John 10:10)—but that enemy, according to the Word of God, has an opponent themselves that’s a force to be reckoned with.

You.  Me. Any mother who’s willing to get on her knees and cry out for the heart of her children.

James 5:16 says, “the prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with."

Wow.  Cool stuff.  And to think that I rub shoulders with friends who kneel daily in prayer for THEIR kids....who rub shoulders with mine.  We pray for each other!!   We love each other!!  We support each other!!  We pray for each other's kids!!  My kids are equipped with more than just one praying momma.  Bam!!  Take that, Satan!!

 Yes, prayer is the only possibility with real possibility. And that brings me to the place where I can finally say… “Hello, my name is Mom. Not God.”

But....Together, we make a great team. :)

In Him, 

Terri