Monday, January 18, 2010

How Do I Pray for My Family?

For the last couple months I've been trying to think of a way to help myself faithfully pray for all the things that I want to take to the Lord. It seems that if I don't have a plan, it doesn't happen. I've asked several older women how they have prayed for their families over the years, and got some wonderful advise. Here's what I came up with that seems to work for me: I am taking a certain day once a month to journal/write down all the things that are on my heart to pray for in an ACTS format (starting with Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and lastly Supplication/requests). I write it out as a prayer to the Lord, and then am able to look back at it over the month and pray for these things. Then the next month I mark down the things that were answered, and then write out the new month's prayer. I like being able to look back and see how God is working over time in our lives, and see how He has answered prayer (not always the way I imagined, either :). It's helpful to verbalize to God what I need to work on personally, how I can be praying for my husband, what things I need to focus on in training Maddie, and other random things that are happening in our life. I traced Maddie's little hand right over the page so that it becomes a keepsake as I look back over God's faithfulness in the years to come. All the pages are going inside a three ringed binder for safe keeping.
Besides the changes from month to month to pray through in life, there are so many Scripture verses I want to pray for Madison as she grows up. Here are some themes and verses to continually pray for your children.
I hope this encourages you to be a prayer warrior. It is a comfort to know that God hears the prayers of the righteous (Prov. 15:29)!

7 comments:

azuremle said...

Thanks for sharing the outcome of this project! Also appreciate the doc with verses. And...LOVE the new look of the blog:)

Deidre Johnson said...

Deidre,
What a joy it is for me as your mother to see you make such a vitally important thing as praying for your children a priority. I think you know I had a day set aside to pray for each of you. It is the single most important thing you can do because of Is. 63:1 - "Our mighty God saves".

Mimi said...

Ok I didn't know to pick an identity....I thought I had one!!

Sara Mallon said...

thanks for the post Deidre!!!!

Drollingers said...

Great thoughts. Thank you and I particulary like the resource list on verses to pray through. Love ya!

Brooke Smith said...

Thanks Dedire for posting this! It has been an encouragement to me as I do desire to pray for my family! If you have any other practical godly advice bring it on!! :)

Let's get together soon!

Jeremy, Meg, Connor, Katie & Kara said...

Thanks for that post. Always a blessing to have SCRIPTURE (and the references too!) to be praying.