Seasons of Parental Prayer

 

Last week I wrote about the different seasons of life as seen through the eyes of a parent, and I left this teaser regarding this week’s post: prayer is a constant in every season of parenting. Prayer gives us the opportunity to lift up not only our individual children to God, but also to ask for the help we need along the way as parents. Parenting is both hard and rewarding, and prayer looks a little different in every season.

Prayers during the baby season of parenting usually revolve around things like health and proper growth, as well as pleading for the little one to sleep through the night as soon as possible! My older son was born with a hole in his heart that was discovered at two days old and was expected to require future surgery. Sometimes special prayers are necessary because of such unforeseen circumstances. Although the outcome is sometimes different, God’s answer to our prayers was to allow the hole to heal on its own by two weeks of age; and our son is now 40 years old!

Preschoolers require a different level of parental prayers. We pray that they will learn to obey us, that they will love Jesus and have a soft heart for God, and that we will have wisdom to build their character in these formative years. Most parents also need to pray a lot during the sometimes difficult stage of potty training! As we learned from experience, the degree of strong will in the child can make or break a parent’s efforts to accomplish this task. Our second son required a perceived “word from the Lord” before he would choose to yield in this area! So . . . many . . . prayers.

There are so many new things to pray about when you have school-age children. We pray for safety, for academic success, for development of social skills, and for spiritual growth. We pray about new outside influences, choosing friends, and new opportunities for sinning. And just when we think they’re doing pretty well, they discover the opposite sex! And then in the later years of school, we pray about their choices for the future and the way those choices will affect who they become as young adults.

As our children enter young adulthood, we enter a new realm of parental prayer – a time when we have little control over what our children do. Perhaps we should have felt this way all along, but we become even more dependent on God; and our prayers become even more fervent. I have found that this season of parenting can bring freedom instead of worry as we learn to turn our children completely over to God and trust him for the outcomes. Our prayers for spiritual growth, wise behavior, choice of future mate, and successful launching into adulthood are sometimes accompanied by “Lord, do whatever it takes” prayers as we learn to let God grow our children in his way and his time. But there is great blessing in watching God work in our children’s lives apart from any effort by us.

Now that my children are fully launched, I still pray for them daily. But this season is a continuation of their young adult years as I entrust them fully to God while lifting up specific requests that come and go. It’s hard to imagine, but God loves my boys more than I ever could; and he alone knows what is best for them and all those around them. Yes, I am blessed to have children who choose to follow God daily; that fact is not lost on me. And my prayers would take different forms if my children were still spiritually lost. But, regardless of the status of our children, parental prayer is a powerful tool for both them and us – entrusting those we love to God’s care, and teaching us as parents to surrender everything to his sovereignty and power for his glory.

And now I have grandchildren to pray for each day as the seasons repeat. . .