Praying for Your Children

My husband preached on prayer last Sunday and then I found this article on line via Everyday Becky entitled “31 Things to Pray for Your Children.”  (That’s one thing for each day of the month.)  So helpful!  Check it out!

31 Things to Pray for Your Children

1 salvation “Lord, let salvation spring up within my children, that they may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory” (Isaiah 45:8, 2 Timothy 2:10).

2 growth in grace “I pray that they may ‘grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ'” (2 Peter 3:18).

3 love “Grant, Lord, that my children may learn to ‘live a life of love,’ through the Spirit who dwells in them” (Ephesians 5:2, Galatians 5:22).

4 honesty and integrity ” May integrity and honesty be their virtue and their protection” (Psalm 25:21, NLT).

5 self-control ” Father, help my children not to be like many others around them, but let them be ‘alert and self-controlled’ in all they do” (1 Thessalonians 5:6)

6 a love for God’s Word ” May my children grow to find your Word ‘more precious than gold, than much pure gold; [and] sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb'” (Psalm 19:10).

7 justice ” God, help my children to love justice as you do and to ‘act justly’ in all they do” (Psalm 11:7, Micah 6:8).

8 mercy ” May my children always ‘be merciful, as [their] Father is merciful'” (Luke 6:36).

9 respect (for self, others, authority) ” Father, grant that my children may ‘show proper respect to everyone,’ as your Word commands” (1 Peter 2:17a).

10 strong, Biblical self-esteem ” Help my children develop a strong self-esteem that is rooted in the realization that they are ‘God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus'” (Ephesians 2:10).

11 faithfulness “‘ Let love and faithfulness never leave [my children],’ but bind these twin virtues around their necks and write them on the tablet of their hearts” (Proverbs 3:3).

12 courage “May my children always ‘Be strong and courageous’ in their character and in their actions” (Deuteronomy 31:6).

13 purity “‘Create in [them] a pure heart, O God,’ and let their purity of heart be shown in their actions” (Psalm 51:10).

14 kindness “Lord, may my children ‘always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else'” (1 Thessalonians 5:15).

15 generosity “Grant that my children may ‘be generous and willing to share [and so] lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age'” (1 Timothy 6:18-19).

16 peace, peaceability “Father, let my children ‘make every effort to do what leads to peace'” (Romans 14:19).

17 joy ” May my children be filled ‘with the joy given by the Holy Spirit'” (1 Thessalonians 1:6).

18 perseverance ” Lord, teach my children perseverance in all they do, and help them especially to ‘run with perseverance the race marked out for [them]'” (Hebrews 12:1).

19 humility ” God, please cultivate in my children the ability to ‘show true humility toward all'” (Titus 3:2).

20 compassion ” Lord, please clothe my children with the virtue of compassion” (Colossians 3:12).

21 responsibility ” Grant that my children may learn responsibility, ‘for each one should carry his own load'” (Galatians 6:5).

22 contentment ” Father, teach my children ‘the secret of being content in any and every situation. . . . through him who gives [them] strength'” (Philippians 4:12-13).

23 faith ” I pray that faith will find root and grow in my children’s hearts, that by faith they may gain what has been promised to them” (Luke 17:5-6, Hebrews 11:1-40).

24 a servant heart ” God, please help my children develop servant hearts, that they may serve wholeheartedly, ‘as to the Lord, and not to men'” (Ephesians 6:7, KJV).

25 hope ” May the God of hope grant that my children may overflow with hope and hopefulness by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13).

26 the willingness and ability to work hard ” Teach my children, Lord, to value work and to work hard at everything they do, ‘as working for the Lord, not for men'” (Colossians 3:23).

27 a passion for God ” Lord, please instill in my children a soul that “followeth hard after thee,” a heart that clings passionately to you (Psalm 63:8, KJV).

28 self-discipline ” Father, I pray that my children may develop self-discipline, that they may acquire ‘a disciplined and prudent life, doing what is right and just and fair'” (Proverbs 1:3).

29 prayerfulness ” Grant, Lord, that my children’s lives may be marked by prayerfulness, that they may learn to ‘pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests” (Ephesians 6:18).

30 gratitude ” Help my children to live lives that are always ‘overflowing with thankfulness,’ ‘always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ'” (Colossians 2:7, Ephesians 5:20).

31 a heart for missions ” Lord, please help my children to develop a heart for missions, a desire to see your glory declared among the nations, your marvelous deeds among all peoples” (Psalm 96:3).

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Reunions

Being the extremely sentimental person that I am, I always look forward to things like family get togethers and reunions. I think I looked forward to my high school reunion since the day after graduation! My senior year, I was voted “most likely to marry a preacher” and my senior prediction was that I would come to our ten year reunion in a woody station wagon with a carload of kids. You can imagine how disappointed I was to not win the award for having the most kids at the ten year! I had four kids at that point, but Kari Son had five. I think she has eight now. I’ve dropped out of that race, by the way.

So, you can imagine how disappointed I was at having to miss the twentieth. I can’t even believe I’ve been out of high school for twenty years! When did this happen? It totally sneaked up on me! But when I got the invitation via my mother who gets her nails done weekly by my former class president, I was totally pumped. I started wondering about what I would wear, what my husband would wear and if I should try to lose ten pounds. I only thought about the ten pounds for as long as it took me to walk by the Chocolate Sheet cake sitting on the kitchen counter, so don’t be too impressed. But as the day drew closer, I realized I had a calendar conflict. The oldest daughter of the man who had discipled me during my high school days was getting married. It only took me about five seconds to choose. I would miss the opportunity to see my old classmates all tanned, tucked and spit shined to attend a pivotal moment in the lives of a family who invested so very much in me.

The wedding wasn’t fancy. A family with nine children can’t put on an extravaganza. But it was lovely. The bride was radiant, the ceremony was God centered and the food (catered for free by a friend who went to culinary arts school) was fantastic! The groom sang an all time favorite of mine “Pledge My Head to Heaven.” We’ve been to some weddings in the past few years that looked a little reminiscent of this, so I was glad my sixteen year old was there to witness what a Christian wedding is supposed to be like.

So I missed my twenty year reunion but as it turned out, the wedding was a better reunion because I saw so many brothers and sisters from my home church. Some of them were folks I hadn’t seen since my wedding seventeen years ago. A little taste of what Heaven’s going to be like, I guess. And I can’t wait.

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Where I Belong

Today the Rays went tromping around in antique stores over in Weston and I did what I do best… drooled over all of the vintage pieces of china, silver, and crystal on display. The find of the day? A little pink bunny by Fenton with hand painted flowers. I nabbed her. I don’t make spontaneous purchases too often, but she was calling my name and I had to have her. Oh to have unlimited resources to fill every nook and cranny of my house with that stuff. My house could be a veritable Victoria magazine cover!!!!

But it’s not to be, and so mostly I just look. But I noticed something today. A china tea cup sitting by its lonesome just isn’t as appealing as one sitting in a lighted china cabinet surrounded by its cousins. It just looks better in the cabinet because it’s at home. It belongs there. My little pink bunny was cute in the store but she looks just perfect sitting in my china cabinet next to the Noritake creamer.

And that’s exactly how I feel about myself. I just feel better when I’m surrounded by family. And I am better– they make me better. I belong there.

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You picked a fine time to…

start blogging again!

It’s true.  I haven’t blogged in a very long while.  The reasons are varied.  First of all, there has been a lot of (normal for a pastor’s wife and mother of five) stress in my life over the past year or so and I just didn’t have the emotional energy to give to the ole’ blaaawg.  Secondly, my jewelry business really took off and while I only do one show a week, it still requires daily attention on the business end.  And…  just to keep life interesting, I also took a part time job working 7 or 8 hours per week at a dental clinic here in town owned by some good friends of ours.  I was/am loving all of the new things in my life, but something had to give.  The sub title of my blog is from Titus 2 about a Christian woman’s priorities.  I had to give up the blog to stay true to those priorities.

But now I’ve adjusted to all of the new things in my life and I think that perhaps I might be able to squeeze in “thisonesforthegirls” again.  My good friend Jules offered to move me over to WordPress and I guess I just couldn’t resist.

So–  just to get this think kickstarted–  I’ll just say here in this first post of the year that I’ve missed all of you and I’m glad to be back.  Here’s hoping that I can “give back” some and be as much of blessing to all of you as so many of you are to me.

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