Week 12!

Challenge:
This past winter we had a solid month of children being sick. That time made me become much more prayerful for my children and I realized just how many opportunities I have throughout the day to pray for my children which I never took advantage of before. Yesterday, as I was giving my children a bath, I began reading my Bible out loud to them. It wasn't a children's Bible or any particular story, but I simply flipped pages and read while they splashed in the tub. Again, it was as if a light bulb when off in my head and I thought, "why am I not doing this more often?" I have so many chances during the day to pray for my children and wash them with the Word, but I don't take advantage of them, and half the time I don't even think about the need or notice the opening. What a revelation!

My challenge, then, is to work in prayer and God's Word even more into the lives of my children this week. I want to redeem my time with them. I don't merely want to sing nursery rhymes with them, but to explain how those rhymes can point back to our Creator (after singing twinkle twinkle little star I can talk about how God created all the stars, etc). I want to praise my children for their gifts and talents, but then mention ways in which God might use them for His glory. I want to pray for my children every time my hands are on them (hugs, diaper changes, doing hair, etc). The Enemy allows for so many distractions in the every day life and I desire to take those moments and turn them into worshipful moments!

Precious Lord, thank You for the gift of parenting. Help me as I redeem my time with my children. Open my eyes to all the opportunities to speak Your truth into their lives. May I be a more prayerful and intentional mother and help me be the parent You have called me to be - one that is in the world, but not of the world. In Christ Jesus I pray these things. Amen.

Prayer:
Lord, I pray that my children's hearts would not be a bare path, a rocky place, or full of thorns. Instead, I ask that You would help their hearts be good soil so that when they hear the Word they will understand it. Allow Your Word to produce a crop in their lives that would yield a hundred, sixty, or thirty times what was sown. I pray that they would see with their eyes, hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts and turn to You for their hope and salvation. Heal them, Lord (Matthew 13:1-23). I ask all of these things in the name of Jesus. Amen.