Today I would like to share with you something that has REVOLUTIONIZED my prayer life with it comes to praying for my three children. I, like you perhaps, KNOW it is important to pray for my children. I value prayer, I believe God's Word to be true when it exhorts us to pray, and I have read many books on the subject of praying for my children. I have made multiple prayer lists, prayed the Scriptures, and tried to pray over a wide-array of areas in their lives (such as future mates, godly friends and mentors, wisdom with disciplining them, etc). But, in spite of all this, I found that I was simply overwhelmed, scattered, and inconsistent in my efforts to pray for my children. I felt defeated and as a result, often had periods of prayerlessness because I simply did not know where to start!
However, I look at things entirely different now. Praying for my children has become much easier, more focused, and more consistent than ever before! What has made the difference? It changed for me when I prayerfully pinpointed ONE IMAGE to serve as a vantage point, or spring-board if you will, from which to pray over my children throughout the day. I prayed for something solid to come to mind, a visual picture that I could use that would serve as the framework for my prayers. I liken this image to a "focal point" that one might use when they are in active childbirth. I recall taking lamaze childbirth classes with my husband when we were expecting our first child, and in that course, we were encouraged to pick a "focal point," a picture or an object, that we would bring to the hospital labor and delivery room when my labor began. During labor, I could focus all my attention on that focal point during painful contractions, and it would help me to concentrate on deep-breathing and relaxing. This analogy of prayer to labor is not that far off! The Apostle Paul speaks to it in Romans 15:30, "But I beg of you my brethren, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of The Spirit, that you labor with me in prayer to God for me" (emphasis mine). Prayer is hard work at times!
So, one day while I was going over several Scripture passages I had written in my prayer journal to pray for my children, I started to see a THEME develop. The passages of Scripture included Psalm 1, Jeremiah 17, Ephesians 3, Colossians 2, Matthew 13 and others which speak to being "rooted and established," "built up in Christ," "bearing fruit" and several passages used trees in their imagery. The visual picture that began to come into clearer focus for me was that of an OAK TREE. I soon found other passages that spoke to this, such as Isaiah 61:3, one of my favorites to date, which states, "they will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor." YES! I had found my image! Suddenly it was as though fall had arrived, as I started pulling out acorn decorations from our storage bins and proliferating the house with all things "oak tree" related! I placed acorns in the spare change compartment of my car, in my spiritual journey suitcase, and printed a mounted photo of a tree picture with the inscription of Isaiah 61:3 on it for our family bookcase (which I placed next to a ceramic acorn!)...
What I love about having a central image or prayer-theme is that I can pray Biblical, Scripture-based prayers at a moments notice, without the aid of prayer journals and reference books. I can be on the playground with my 3-year-old, and she will start bringing me acorns that she has gathered from the ground, and I can just smile and stuff them in my pockets, and pray over these mighty "oaks of righteousness" that the Lord has entrusted to my care! When I watch them run in our backyard under the trees (which incidentally are also oaks!), I can pray that they put down deep roots in God's truth, never be shaken when doubts and trials spring up! We can be driving down the road and I can take notice of the trees lining the highway and pray that my children will have fertile "4th soil" hearts to receive God's Word and bear much fruit in their lives!
In fact, we recently had a family photo session, courtesy of a friend of ours from church, at a local park. It was a gorgeous afternoon and we were able to let the kids run around and get a few pictures together as a family and individually of the children. However, it wasn't until a few weeks later, when we received the prints that my throat caught--we had photographed our entire family under a beautiful canopy of live oak trees! I saw picture after picture of the children sitting atop oak branches or hugging the mighty trunks of these beautiful trees! What precious symbolism the Lord provided and what a precious reminder as I pray for them through the years! Thank you God (and our friend Dustin!)!
When I ran across some wood-grained patterened scrapbook paper, I knew I HAD to make an "oaks of righteousness" scrapbook page of the children to frame for my bedroom! I printed a picture of all my littles in the oak trees and journaled a prayer for them on the page. I also stamped an oak tree and acorn image on the page! I love how it turned out!
So, now it is YOUR turn! Perhaps a visual image or "focal point" would aid YOU as you pray for those in your life, entrusted to YOUR care! I would encourage you to prayerfully consider an image that might help to anchor you in the Word as you pray! There's one idea...an ANCHOR! Perhaps a ROCK? Or perhaps the TREE resonates with you, too--I certainly do not own the corner market on that one! For my nieces (who are both July babies), I think of "rubies" (the July birthstone) and pray Proverbs 31:10 over them (..."a wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies..."). The ideas are endless within the pages of the Scriptures! I trust that you will find doing so will simplify, focus, and ease your prayer efforts on behalf of the others in your life! And when you do find one, would you leave a comment about it please? I would be so encouraged to hear how the Lord is showing YOU how to pray for those in your life!
No comments