Have you ever been asked that question before? Even if you haven’t, I’m sure you’ve thought about it and I’m sure you’ve come up with a long list of possible answers. Here’s a few that I’ve thought about:
Make sure they eat a healthy diet.
Teach them to be kind to other people (particularly their siblings!).
Give them everything they need and much of what they want.
Enrol them into a good school.
I could go on…
Whatever else we think is important, I’m sure we would all agree that actually the most important thing we can do for our children, whatever their age, is to love them. But what is the best way to love our children? There is one word that comes to mind – sacrifice. In other words, putting their needs before our own. God knows a lot about sacrifice.
The Bible tells us that God loved us so much that he sent Jesus, his one and only son so that we might be given eternal life with him. And not just eternal life but ‘life in all its fullness’ as sons and daughters along with Jesus. That is quite staggering when you stop to think about it – I am a sister of Jesus! Take a look in the Bible at John chapter 3 verse 16 and also 1 John chapter 3 verse 16 (different books in the Bible but both verses speak about the love that God the Father and Jesus have for us).
It’s likely that we won’t be asked to give our lives for our children; but we are called to love them to the best of our ability, and I believe that to do that we must pray for them – often. None of us are perfect parents (sorry to break that to you) but we can draw strength and wisdom from the One who is. Parenting is tough; there are highs and lows, times of immense joy and also times of deep sadness but through all of these times we can and should thank God for each of our children and talk to him about our joys and sorrows, our hopes and fears for them.
Over the years I’ve found some books that help me to focus on praying for my child. The best I’ve found is called ‘Praying Through the Bible for your Kids’ by Nancy Guthrie. On each page, Nancy suggests some passages of the Bible to read. She comments on a verse or two and finishes with a prayer that you can pray specifically for your child(ren). If you read the Bible passages each day you will have read the entire Bible in a year as well as prayed at least once every day for your children – that sounds like a good plan!
It’s available from The Good Book Company and 10ofThose as well as Amazon and other retailers.
https://www.thegoodbook.co.uk/praying-through-the-bible-for-your-kids
God bless you as you parent your children, whatever age they are.
Helen
St Botolph's Blog 