Praying For Our Blessings

Psalm 127 (the Message)

“1-2 If God doesn’t build the house,
the builders only build shacks.
If God doesn’t guard the city,
the night watchman might as well nap.
It’s useless to rise early and go to bed late,
and work your worried fingers to the bone.
Don’t you know he enjoys
giving rest to those he loves?
3-5 Don’t you see that children are God’s best gift?
the fruit of the womb his generous legacy?
Like a warrior’s fistful of arrows
are the children of a vigorous youth.
Oh, how blessed are you parents,
with your quivers full of children!
Your enemies don’t stand a chance against you;
you’ll sweep them right off your doorstep.”

As I am writing this, my sweet 4 month old baby girl is sleeping beside me on the couch, going in and out of sleep. She wakes up slightly, smiles at me, and then half closes her eyes as she drifts back into sleep. I can’t take my eyes off of her…she is so beautiful and sweet and innocent. She has yet to talk back to me, ignore me, hit me, or refuse to eat veggies. Part of me wants to just pause here, and keep her as my tiny baby girl forever.

But after studying the Bible in preparation for writing this devotional, I’m struck by what isn’t in the Bible. God’s word never says, “Babies are a blessing, but when they get older…woo, buddy, watch out!” Nor does it say, “The more well behaved the child, the bigger blessing to the parent” or “Kids are a blessing only if they eat all their veggies at every meal.”

Children are always a blessing. Legally in the United States, you are a child until you turn 18. But you will always be your momma’s child – when you are 19, 30, 50, even 75. You are always a blessing. And your children are always a blessing to you from the Lord. Psalm 127 is one of those chapters that you can easily skim over and move on without much thought. But verses 3-5 are especially worth noting as parents. Our children are like arrows and our enemies don’t stand a chance when we have a quiver full of them! Biological, adopted, foster, mentee, student, friend – we have lots of types of children we call our own. And they are all so beautiful. Frustrating. And beautiful. Placed in our lives strategically by God.

So let’s pray for our children. Let’s lift them up to God so that he can make them great. Let’s humble ourselves in prayer before him so that they may have abundant blessings, perfect health, and a life committed to him. It’s easy to go through a quick checklist of things to pray for and repeat the same superficial requests day in and day out. What if we dug deeper and made praying for our children one of our top priorities? I’m talking about the get-on-your-knees-and-focus kind of prayer. If you think you don’t have time, take one minute while your kids are napping, at school, or before you go to bed to pray a verse over them. No one is too busy for one minute. One minute every day praying for your children will be the most powerful thing you ever do for them. If you don’t know what to pray, use the list of verses below to guide and direct your prayer. Insert your children by name into these verses and turn it into a specific prayer. For example,

1 Peter 1:15-16  

“But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”

My prayer looks like this: “God, you are holy. You have called me to fill the role of Jacob’s mother and I’m so grateful. I lift my precious boy up to you and ask that you would soften his heart towards you from a young age. That he would be holy in everything he does: building friendships, in school, in business one day, in his character. I pray that he would make the decision to follow you and to live a life that isn’t defined by self righteousness or a holier-than-thou attitude, but one of humble obedience to be holy. I also pray that in my current struggle to handle Jacob’s poor eating habits, you would give me the grace to reflect you, just as this verse instructs me. Amen.”

Here is a list of verses to pray for our children:

• Psalm 4:8 (for safety)
• Proverbs 13:1 (to heed parent’s instruction)
• 1 Peter 1:15-16 (to be holy)
• 1 Peter 2:2 (to grow in salvation)
• 1 Peter 5:5-7 (to submit to elders, be clothed in humility, be humble, not be anxious)
• Hebrews 13:16 (to do good and share)
• 1 Thessalonians 4:1 (to live to please God)
• 2 Timothy 1:7-8 (to not be ashamed of faith, to not give in to fear)
• 2 Timothy 2:22 (to have friends who love you with a pure heart)
• Philemon 1:6 (to have a deep faith to share with others)

This list is certainly not exhaustive. Dig into the word and find your own favorite verses to pray over your children – whether veggie related or not. God is listening!

This is part of a series called The “My Kid Doesn’t Eat Veggies” devotional. Click here to read more of the series. Messy Tired Love devotionals connect everyday mom moments to the truth of the gospel. Learn more here.