an eternal future???

I think this is the most important prayer we can pray for anyone, especially our children.

They say the best way to tell anything is through your life story, this is hard for me in many ways... anyway, I married at a young naive time in my life(the first time), when I thought everyone believed in God; so imagine my surprise when I was told "I'm an atheist". I was scared and wondered what I had done. I began right away praying for his salvation and my future children's as well- I don't even think I was sure how one decided not to believe and I knew I didn't want my children to follow the steps of their dad and not believe. See I was told about Jesus at a young age(5 years old) by my grandmother and it was during a very traumatic life event so it stuck and I couldn't argue with it because I saw Jesus show up and save my mom and my baby sister too because she came too early... anyway, because of how I first experienced Jesus I didn't know how an adult could experience Him if they hadn't already. Stormie is so right when she says "once our children have received the Lord we must continue praying for their relationship with Him." No matter how hard we try to protect our children they will go through things; some minor, some that will draw them closer to God and some that will test their faith.
I took my children to church off an on at a young age, and let them go to local vbs but most of their knowledge of God/Jesus came from me sharing bible stories and bible songs with them at home and in the car. One of my early memories of my children's first experiences of seeing my prayers in action was a night when tornadoes were tearing through the neighborhood, their atheist dad was scared and screaming and scaring the kids when I took them both onto my lap and sat in the middle of the floor telling them the story of when Jesus calmed the storm and Peter walked on water and I told them we can ask Jesus to calm this storm and protect us.... I'm never going to forget the green sky and the funnel cloud that came right by our house we watched it coming down and then all of a sudden it changed directions and hit an empty field. I have to believe this was a faith building time in my children's lives, I know it was in mine.  Now does this mean He'll calm and redirect every storm that comes our way, I doubt it, for some of the storms in our lives will be needed to teach us life lessons. I know after that night their dad never said anything against God again and he never complained about me teaching my kids about Him. In fact seven years later everyone of us came to know Jesus, oh I'm sure you probably wondering how I can say everyone of us since I had already known Him... I knew of Jesus, I knew He calmed storms, I knew He helped people when we were in trouble, I even knew He healed sickness but I didn't know the most important thing and that is Relationship. So you see I believe my granny introduced me to Jesus as a 5 year old scared little girl and that she continued to pray for me to one day know Him personally through relationship. I have to admit I didn't know the importance of continuing to pray for someone after they came to know jesus, I thought it was done and finished.... I'm glad Stormie has opened my eyes to the importance of continuing to pray.
I want to fast forward in my life story, a time that I struggled in my faith, I had stood by my atheist husband and prayed for him for 13 years before he accepted Jesus but after that I gave up praying so fervently, and it wasn't long before he went back to his ways and I found myself divorced, my teenage children living with him, as I feared my whole childhood I was now alone and rejected, I questioned God many times and I even quit praying for a season and then one night I remember thinking Jesus has always been here and He always will no matter what, so back to church I went and peace washed over me as I learned God was in control and He had a perfect plan for me. I didn't know 2 years later I'd be remarried and a full-time mom again, but God did and He knows the steps of my whole life along with the steps of my children's lives. So I know today, without a doubt He is in control and no matter how I mess up or how wrong I get my prayers He knows just how I need to pray and the Holy Spirit helps direct my prayers as they need to be, so we all can believe NO MATTER WHAT STAGE OUR CHILDREN ARE IN, GOD WILL NEVER LEAVE THEM AND HE WILL WALK WITH THEM ALL OF THEIR DAYS, HE WILL fill in the gaps for where we fail, so releasing our children to God is the best thing we can do for them.... hold onto His promises and pray without ceasing.

I'd love you to share your thoughts and even some of your God story with us on our private Facebook page. The blog isn't private so share only what you don't mind others reading.
Leaving you with this 1 Timothy 2:3-4 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

And a promise to send you a helper, so you can know without a doubt you're not left here to go at life alone....  John 14:16-17.

Have a great week

love and accepted

This chapter may be hard on some of us- I know it was for me. I was raised in a single parent home, yeah my mom loved me, my granny loved me and I was taught Jesus loves me but I don't know what it is with us girls.... we always want daddy, I had a step-dad and I believe he loved me but nothing was helping the rejection I felt from my real daddy. I'm glad to say I've had a relationship with my daddy since 2005. I also know due to other life experiences, I didn't love my kids enough well I didn't show them enough affection. Even though my kids are now adults, I find hope in Stormie's words "if however your child is now older and realize for one reason or another that he(she) doesn't feel loved, you can begin right now", not only am I praying for my children  I'm praying for their spouses also and my grandchildren... the  cycles can be broken and generation after generation doesn't have to continue to feel unloved and un-accepted.

   Now, this brings me to my 10 year old- I know he knows he's loved by his daddy and me but as in my childhood, nothing can replace that feeling of rejection and and lack of love of one's biological parent(boys always want moms as girls it's dad). He has expressed these thoughts and shed many tears over these feelings, I usually hold him and pray until the tears stop, as he has gotten older these tears have become anger and angry words at who... yeah me, I don't handle those so well(just being honest and transparent). This chapter has helped me see what to pray for each of my children and the one that I feel the strongest need to pray for his the one just like me.

The words of my 10 year old this year was ones of not having a girlfriend and none of the girls loving him... this shocks me for he's only 10 but then wait I look back and yeah I too just wanted a boy to love me( I don't remember my older kids going through this- maybe because they had both parents and felt loved more than I give credit??). Anyway, I now know just how to pray for my chosen son.

I hope those of you with older children find hope in knowing it's not too late. Those who have little ones or little ones yet to be born, don't forget this very important concern and cover it in prayer often. "Feeling loved and accepted" let's not listen to the voice of Satan any longer(choose to listen to the voice of Truth).

Lord,
I pray(child's name), to feel loved and accepted. Penetrate his (her) heart with Your love right now and help him (her) to fully understand how far-reaching and complete it is. Your word says YOU loved us so much that YOU sent Your Son to die for us(John 3:16). Deliver him(her) from any lies of the Enemy that may have been planted in his(her) mind to cause him(her) to doubt that. Jesus said "As the Father loved me, I also have loved you; abide in My love"(John 15:9-10). Lord, help (name of child) abide in Your love.
That is just a portion of the prayer especially for those who don't have your book yet...

Have a great day, and if you don't feel loved and accepted or if reading this has showed you that your spouse may not feel loved and accepted or your grown children... it's not too late to pray.

Blessings in Christ

protection for our children

Praying for protection; I'm sure we all have prayed for protection of our children and often. I know I have on many occasions, as they grow older and different phases of life those prayers take on different tones and shapes. I remember praying for my son's safety during a tornado while he was with his nanny, I remember praying for my daughter's breath when she was first born. Do I think I deserve something special from God because of who I am, hardly, in fact over years my prayer life has gone through many phases. One of high faith and one of very low faith. I've heard pastor after pastor say "ask and it shall be given" and so many other popular verses such as speak things as though they were, not as they are, this gives us great hopes that all we have to do is ask and it will be done however we call and ask it, but they leave off according to His will. I began reading a book called Praying backwards and was astonished when I read the words that let me know why I pray in Jesus name. This is giving God permission to have His will done, not mine. This was a great thing for me to learn because I had been struggling over my prayer life, because I could pray and ask God's will for anyone I prayed for except myself and those closest to me; why, because I was afraid of what His will might be, yeah I could say do this or do that and expect it done but what if His will was something different than mine? Now, that's where the rubber meets the road and my faith is tested daily. See, I've prayed over many for protection and I've seen some saved and protected from a circumstance. Then I see many suffering and not being protected and it has caused me to question God but then He leads me to verse that says in this world you will have troubles but take heart, I have overcome this world. Others about not taking us out of our circumstances but delivering us through them so our faith can be  tested, proven and strengthened.(those are all paraphrased). Then I've seen Him take children/people out of this world and I ask why, His response is always "You don't know what I rescued them from"... See, He sees the bigger picture, as David struggled in sin God saw the bigger picture(his heart- the only thing that matters in the end), which makes me wonder did God take Bathsheba and David's first child only for a punishment for sin or to rescue that baby from a life of ridicule, pain, rejection... the list could go on but bottom line is that, His ways aren't our ways.
As, I write this blog God has taken a very precious 1 month old baby girl out of this world and I guarantee you there has been many, including myself praying for her healing but He chose the ultimate healing for her and why I don't know, these parents loved and wanted her so greatly but He said NO, this has my heart aching not for that precious baby for her life is better than anyone can imagine but for those left behind feeling a void where she was placed in our hearts, never to be taken away..  so this leads me to Stormie's words in chapter 3 " being a praying parent doesn't mean that nothing bad will ever happen to your children or that they will never experience pain. They will." I know my mom was a praying mom as well as my granny was(I witnessed her praying more than I did my mommy) but not everything that I experienced was good or pain free but today, I can see how circumstances were changed because of prayers, even with my own prayers, I know prayer changes things and I believe you do too. Stand firm James 5:8

Releasing our Children to God ..

As Stormie writes about her first child Christopher and how she was concerned about everything. I'm sure we all can relate; I know I can. Even, today, I still find myself worrying about my kids and when I don't I feel guilty, as if I don't care enough about them(do any of you feel this way too, or is it just me?).
As Stormie says her son is the biggest care she has - I'm sure we all feel the same but can we really say God here is child's name,  only YOU can raise him/her right and truly keep him/her safe?
Can we vow to no longer strive to do it on our own by entering into full partnership with God? As we continue to read in chapter two we see that sometimes we'll have to choose to release our children into God's hands more than once- maybe even daily. I've been a parent for almost 24 years now and I have had many times of worrying; I did take to God in prayer but I also took it upon myself to control and not fully release my children into God's hands, seeing this keeps the pressure on me and doesn't allow me to enjoy parenting to its fullest; I think I'm ready to release my children into God's hands and trust that they are in good hands. 
I love this in chapter two"we don't want to limit what God can do in our children by clutching them to ourselves and trying to parent them alone. If we're not positive that God is in control of our children's lives, we'll be ruled by fear." "We can trust God to take care of our children even better than we can."-" We can't be everywhere. But God can. We can't see everything. But God can. We can't know everything. But God can." Let's all look at Psalm 139; if we believe God's word to be 100% truth then this should help us have faith to trust our children into God's hands no matter what the circumstances are- no matter how we feel about what's going on in our child's life. I know in light of psalm 139, I'm going to continue to release my children into God's hands daily.
A personal bit of information....
My son(23 years old), got married 4 years ago and has a 3year old son, are they living as I'd like them to be? No! Do I worry about them?? Yes! Do I believe God is taking care of them- yes!
My daughter 21 years old, engaged to be married on the 27th of this month to a young man she met online. Does this worry me? Yes! Do I turn it over to God daily? Sometimes. Do I believe God will take care of her? Sometimes... but in light of chapter 2 I know that I must trust Him and let go so that He can work. Will this be easy- No; did I mention this guy is from Canada???- Can God really take care of my daughter if she moves so far away???- yes, He can but let me be the first to admit I'm scared to death of losing my baby girl; I'm scared to death of un-taught life lessons- but what I must hold onto is the fact that she belongs to God and He is in complete control- where I failed, He will not!
Then this leaves us with my ten year old son, Joel, my biggest fear is messing up someone else's son for he isn't mine by blood but by heart. He has so many hurts and concerns and I never know if I'm handling them correctly or not but today I will choose to release him into God's very capable hands and I know I will have to do this over and over and over...   well we get the picture :). No matter what our children's age or circumstances our trusting God to take care of them is the first step in our faith of trusting He knows best.
Read and memorize Psalm 139, let it be our prayer for ourselves and our children, even our spouses.

Becoming a praying parent

As we begin this journey together, I pray each and every one of us will finish being stronger in our prayer life. As well as our relationship with Jesus and each other.

I was taught how to pray by watching others, we never prayed as a family except for God is Great God is good let us thank him for our food... and now I lay me down to sleep I pray the Lord my soul to keep.... until one scary night in my childhood that's all I knew about praying and then on this night my granny told me I could talk to Jesus anytime I want and tell Him about all my troubles. Then I knew when things weren't going right I could pray. In Sunday school I remember learning the Lord's prayer for a prize then I began to pray it.

Over the years my prayer life became one of please do..... please help... if you________, I will stop____ or if you will________ I will do______; yes all broken promises.
Then, when I became a mom, I began praying for my children, when they were sick, when they were away from me(because when they weren't with me, I couldn't control what happened to them or what they did).

Then in 2001, my granny passed away and my prayer life changed some as I began to ask God question after question about death, I knew what I had been told but death scared me and I was just trying to find out what really was happening to my granny. I'll never forget that being the first time I remember hearing from God and it was with the verse John 5:24, today death still scares me but not as much, especially if I know they had a relationship with Jesus.
Then in 2004, I joined a prayer ministry at my church and then my prayer life took a while new turn. During this time I read a book that encouraged me to prayer scripture.
Now for praying God's will, I still struggle and have learned that it is because I don't trust God to know what is best for me, so I'm scared of what His answer may be. I am working on this.
Today reading chapter 1 of the power of a Praying parent, several things got my attention but I'm only going to share a couple of those. One was making an extensive personalized list for each child, I know I have many worry and concerns where my kids are concerned but never have I thought to ask God to show me how to pray for each child. So this week, I am making my lists and asking God to reveal anything to me that I need to be covering in prayer, after all He knows my children better than I do(page 30).I encourage each of you to do the same thing. On page 27 we find "possibility the hardest part of prayer for our children is waiting for our prayers to be answered." The key here is no matter what Don't Stop Praying! Even when our kids make poor choices we should continue to intercede for them. For we make poor choices too but isn't it great to know Jesus is praying for us, Hebrews 7:25.
Remember the fight isn't with our children, it's with the devil, he is the enemy not our child(or our spouse for that matter). Loved the encouraging words "stand strong in prayer until you see a breakthrough in your child's life."
One of my beliefs is that God shows me things in dreams and I will pray over them until I have peace, sometimes I never know the outcome but on occasions God shows me how the outcome differed from my dream. Is this just a bad dream or was it a wHile to get my attention to pray, I don't know for sure but I do believe it has been God showing me things to intercede in a circumstance before it occurred.
I hope you're off to a great start, we will be doing the first three chapters this week. Don't forget to make your list and write out your prayers in a journal.
Please let us know how we can pray for you as well as leaving your comments. If you choose to blog also, feel free to share your page with everyone on our Facebook page. If you find an encouragement share it with us all.

For those who didn't get the study guide, here are a few questions to ponder...
1. List three traits you see as your child's best qualities.
3.List the three biggest concerns you have for your child.
4. Do you ever feel overwhelmed by any these concerns? In what way?
5. Does your child have any negative character traits that need to be covered in prayer? What are they?