Beauty

That they would catch a glimpse of the beauty God sees in them.

The created-into-them beauty, the beauty from being made in his own image, the beauty of the hope and potential in them.

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Now that my little one is napping less, I have to re-adjust my schedule, and this is one of the things that I'm not going to pressure myself to do regularly.  I will still post here once in a while, but not three times weekly like I was.  Keep praying!

Fruit of the Spirit

I want my kids to live lives that display the Fruit of the Spirit.  To be children who learn to be loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, gentle, faithful, good, and self-cotntrolled.  To become adults, in the long run, who have been practicing these things for as long as they can remember.

Lord; this is your work.  I pray you'd grow these in my child. 

I know only the Spirit can develop those in them, but as a parent, I can be the gardener that provides the proper soil, light and water to ensure optimal growing circumstances. 

I pray for wisdom to provide that, and for your Spirit to work in me to grow those so I can be a great model of what it should look like.

Growing Up

Last night I heard a little girl tell me proudly how old she was now after her recent birthday.  I also asked if she was the same age as another girl, and the answer was an emphatic "No! She's still five!" even when her mom confirmed that, yes, they did both just finish Kindergarten.

Growing older is so important to young kids, and rightly so; I pray that we make sure they grow up slow enough, have time to really just be kids, and aren't exposed to things too old for them too soon.

Summer Protection

Lord, as our kids are on holidays from school and doing different summertime activities, I pray you'd protect them from the injuries and illnesses and sunburns that summer sometimes brings.  Keep them guarded and safe; give us parents eyes to see any dangers.

Allowing Failure

I don't like when my daughter has to face the consequences of her actions.  I want to protect her from having to miss out on fun stuff, and don't want her to mope around.  At the same time, when she knows the consequences and still chooses to do what will bring about those consequences, the best thing we can do as parents is stay strong and make her face them.  Along with learning to make right choices, even when it's tough, she'll learn that we are trustworthy and will stand by what we say.  It's important to for kids to know that their parents are reliable.

There's a prayer in there somewhere; it might be for me more than her...

Scripture

So many times in Scripture you read the words, "This is what the Lord, the God of Israel says..."  My prayer today is that our children will read Scripture, love Scripture, and memorize Scripture, so that when any situation comes up, they will be able to say with confidence, "Well, this is what God says about that..."

Marriages

Yesterday my in-laws celebrated 41 years of marriage.  Last week, my former in-laws (I'm working on telling my story here) celebrated 51 years.  Last month, my parents celebrated their 44th anniversary.

And so today, I pray for the future marriages of each of my children, nieces, nephews and sponsored children.  Lord, give them a healthy view of themselves and the patience to wait for the one who will love them they way you designed.  May they keep themselves pure both for themselves and for their future spouse.  May they see us, their parents, modelling a healthy marriage, showing love to each other and handling disagreements in healthy ways.  Protect them from the messages in today's culture that marriage is not important; help us send a stronger message that it is.

Bless them, Lord with wonderful thriving marriages and children of their own.