It feels like the longer I am a mom, the more I learn that I have very few answers. I have a high schooler, a middle schooler, a toddler, and one coming in February.
Being someone who struggles with control and a mom has not always been the best combination. My prayers for my children have been very much about telling God what he should do, how he should do it, and when he should do it. The last seven years I have really worked on my control issues through the twelve steps in the Christ-centered recovery program called Celebrate Recovery. One of my dear friends summed up the first three steps for me as:
- I can’t.
- God can.
- I will let him.
As a person who lived a life in the illusion I had control, these were hard for me. After working on these steps, it became apparent that peace in this life requires a total surrender to God. And that includes me surrendering my children.
One day, a seasoned parent told me that when her daughter was going through a time of rebellion, she threw out all her prayers. Instead, she just began praying this scripture over her daughter while inserting her name. At first, I prayed this over my daughter as she struggled with processing a lot of hurt in her life. Then, I started praying it over all my girls daily:
When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower CHLOE, ALLIE, & EMILIA with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in CHLOE, ALLIE, & EMILIA’S hearts as CHLOE, ALLIE, & EMILIA trust in him.
May CHLOE, ALLIE, & EMILIA’S roots grow down into God’s love and keep CHLOE, ALLIE, EMILIA strong. And may CHLOE, ALLIE, & EMILIA have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May CHLOE, ALLIE, & EMILIA experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then CHLOE, ALLIE, & EMILIA will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.
Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within CHLOE, ALLIE, & EMILIA, to accomplish infinitely more than CHLOE, ALLIE, EMILIA might ask or think. Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen. (Ephesians 3:14-21 NLT)
This verse just seems to have everything I could ever dream for them. The only other prayer I pray daily is:
Lord,
If Chloe, Allie, or Emilia are doing anything that would keep them from you, then please reveal it to me or someone who loves you and them.
In His name,
Amen
I don’t know if these will only be my prayers for them, but they have been for the last two years. It is so freeing to know that God knows better than me. Any hurt in their lives is His to heal. One thing is for sure, God is a much better God than I could ever be!
How do you pray for your children?
Do you pray any scriptures over your children?
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Yes God keeps and protects our children! Thanks for sharing from your heart!
Thanks for posting this, we need to keep the prayers of a mother going for sure. I know that is what brought me this far, prayers of my mother
Beautiful!
This is a great scripture to pray over our children. I pray for my children every morning that they will love and follow Him. I also pray that I will change, develop, and/or grow in the ways I need to in order to be a better mommy to bring my children to God daily.
I’ve been praying this exact Scripture over many people in my life recently! How crazy that it’s the same portion of Scripture!
I love the idea of inserting their name into Scripture. I have prayed certain verses over them too. I mostly just pray “Lord help me so I don’t kill ’em” lately. But that’s because we are doing a lot of praying together and praying for each other.
That prayer from Ephesians 3 is one of my favorite prayers to pray over my family and loved ones. I experience that struggle for control you talked about as well. Prayer helps.
So beautiful. The prayers of a mother over her children are a very powerful thing.