My Prayer for My Children

We all love to hear amazing stories of struggle and victory…of rising out of some difficult circumstance…of triumph over the worst of situations

As a Christian, I’ve often been powerfully moved by the testimony of somebody who lived the worst kind of life imaginable, but who changed to become a powerful soldier for the Kingdom of God.  I think we all gravitate to these kinds of stories.  What could be better than a dramatic transformation?

I don’t have that kind of testimony.  The story of how I became a Christian would probably not become a best-seller in the Christian book market.  In fact, I used to get quite embarrassed when someone would ask me how or when I became a Christian.  Honestly, I can’t remember.

I grew up in a family where my Dad would read to us from the Bible at breakfast every day.  My Mom would read Bible stories to me on a regular basis.  I heard about Jesus and his love for me from the time I was an infant.  I never needed to be convinced to love Jesus…from the training I received as a child, I just grew up loving Him.  Loving Jesus came about as naturally to me as breathing.

Does it make a dramatic story or a great read?  Perhaps not.  Sometimes I have wished that I could say I had once been a drug addict, or a murderer, or a bank-robber before God got ahold of me…but I don’t wish that anymore.  I’m thankful for a “boring” story.  It means that I was spared the heartache and misery of those who had the so-called more exciting testimonies!

I’m thankful for parents who love God, and who love me enough that they taught me to love God too!

I’m not trying to say that my life has been perfect.  Far from it!  I have made my share of poor choices.  I’ve spent more than enough time in my life ignoring God.  This has never been because God abandoned me, but more accurately, because I have wandered away from God.  Thankfully, He’s always been willing to welcome me back!!

I’m a parent now, with 3 boys of my own.  My prayer for my boys is that they will each have a “boring” testimony.  I pray that each of them will love God as easily as they draw breath.  I pray that when they wander (and we all wander sometimes), that they will find their way back without too much heartache in the meantime.

For this prayer to be answered, I need to do my part too, of course.  If I don’t teach my boys my faith…if I don’t read to them the stories of the Bible…if I don’t encourage them to discover the Word of God on their own, I will have failed them.  So part of my prayer for my children is that I won’t be a failure in sharing my faith.  My older 2 sons have already expressed their love for Jesus.  My youngest son is still a toddler, so he doesn’t have the words to express, yet, if he already loves Jesus.  However, even for our youngest, Bible stories are a regular part of his daily routine.

Proverbs 22:6 tells us, “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.”

I guess my prayer for my children could be summed up in that one verse.