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