Children are a gift and a blessing, I have dreamed of being a mom for as long as I can remember.  When I think of children the word legacy comes to mind.  In my opinion, the most important legacy we can leave to our children is a legacy of faith. Giving our children a legacy of faith outweighs leaving them houses or things although it's great to do both.  I read a quote that says "Please think about your legacy because you're writing it every day" -Gary Vaynerchuck.  I don't want to leave my legacy to 'chance', I want to be intentional and prayerful when it comes to my children's future, my legacy. 
This quote reminds me of the big picture, more important than what I do, is who I am.  Not who I am as my job title but who I really am, a child of God, a special treasure, made in His image, saved by His grace, a world changer.  We impart legacy by the lives we live, the words we speak, and through prayer.  I believe in the power of prayer and the importance of covering our children in prayer.  

 I have been asked by others, how do you pray for your children?  Prayer simply put is a conversation with God, and I find that prayer for my children changes with the season of life they are in.  There are times, when I have it on my heart to pray for their future, praying for their future spouse, career choice and that they fulfill the call of God on their life.  There are times when I am praying for their heart and character.  There are times when I am praying for a situation they are facing, that may be a school situation, friend situation or health circumstance.  There is so much we can pray about when it comes to our children.  

 Maybe you don't know where to start or struggle with consistency in praying for your children.  I thought I would share some easy tools I use in praying for my children.

 I love praying the Ephesians Prayer for my children, it is the prayer for inner growth.  This prayer is right out of scripture and we just input our children's names.  There are two Ephesians prayers that I pray for them and myself, Ephesians 3:14-21 and Ephesians 1:16-21.  I love to read these prayers in different versions of the Bible, I regularly pray it from the New King James version, but I also love to read these prayers in the Amplified version and from The Message Bible.  A great tool to find these scriptures in many different versions is BibleGateway.com.  You can pull these prayers up right on your phone, take a few extra minutes when you drop them off to school and say these simple prayers for them.  Pray these prayers as your enjoying your morning cup of coffee or right before bed before you know it, praying these prayers will be part of your daily routine.  I also have these prayers printed out, and I use them as a bookmark in my Bible or Devotional I am reading and it makes for a simple reminder to pray these prayers daily.
Here is a link to a print out I use with the lines in place to insert your children's names. 
https://www.familycc.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/ephesiansprayers.pdf
Psalm 91 is another prayer I love to speak over our family, it is the prayer of protection.  I have a print out of Psalm 91 and I keep it in my car, this is another one, that when I am out and about I can stop and pray this simple prayer over my children most times I pray this at school drop off.  That is the great thing about prayer is you can pray any time and anywhere.  I like to remind myself, just like we want to eat three times a day, we should pray or talk with God more than just one time a day.  
I believe in having a designated prayer or devotional time, but I also know many people are busy and on the go, pray in the shower, pray in the car on your drive to school drop off or on your way to work, pray on your lunch break, pray when you take a bathroom break, pray while your cooking dinner.  It doesn't have to be an hour long prayer, although those times are wonderful.  Quiet time or what some people call meditation time is important, but I think sometimes we want everything to be perfect and quiet and we wait for this spiritual moment rather that incorporating prayer throughout our entire day.  Just like I want to talk with my husband more than one time a day, and I want to talk with my children throughout the day, well our Heavenly Father is the same, He wants to communicate with His children throughout the day.  He is not waiting for us to have the perfect spiritual moment, He wants us to pause and recognize Him, recognize His presence is always with us and He is ever ready to hear our heart's cry. God cares about the big things we face but He also cares about the little things.  He is there to help us parent our children, He is there to help us with every little thing you will allow Him to help you with.  Nothing is too big for God and nothing is too small. 

 There is a prayer book that is titled 'Prayers That Avail Much'.  I purchased my copy from our local Christian Bookstore, you can find them at any Christian retailer and online.  This prayer book is AMAZING!  All of the prayers are written from the Word of God.  I love that the prayers are scripture based and this book has prayers that cover everything, children, marriage, personal prayers and prayers for others, like our country, prayers for our armed forces, prayer for your pastor, missionaries, there are so many.  I love to pray the prayer titled Children at School.   
Here is a link to that prayer:
https://prayers.org/2017/03/children-at-school/
To find out more about Prayers that Avail Much visit https://prayers.org/.
 
Another great tool in helping you pray for your children is signing up for prayer prompts.  I have done this throughout the years, I'll come across a link to sign up to receive prayers to pray.  One I recently received is from Family Life.  You can sign up here to receive simple prayers delivered right to your e-mail box click the image below.  
Tools like these make it easy to pause and pray for your children.  They are great reminders and sometimes when you feel you pray the same thing all the time or you don't feel you have the 'right' words, there are no 'right' words but again, I think we let things like not knowing what to say or thinking we have to be on our knees, keep us from prayer.  These tools can help you get started.

 Another website that I love is https://www.themobsociety.com/ MOB standing for Mothers of Boys, this site has a prayer calendar, 5-day prayer challenges and so much more.  It is geared to praying for your sons, I have four boys so I love it, but you can adapt the prayers to cover all your children. Click the images below for the 25-Day Prayer Calendar or 5-Day Praying for Boys Challenge.

I have been praying for my children since before they were born.  My children are not perfect and neither am I.  I am just like every other mom, I have good moments and moments I am not too proud of.  One thing I know for sure is that although we are trying our best and we want the best for our kids, we need help and our Heavenly Father is here to help us.  Our pastor has taught us to pray over our kids that God would bridge the gap between the love we give them and the love they need.  If we being flawed humans want the best for our kids, how much more the King of the World. Side note I love that song by Natalie Grant He is the King of the World, and we need not forget and take things out of His hands, including our children.  Praying for our kids makes a big difference, not only in them but in us.  I hope these simple tools will help you in praying for your children, I am so grateful for my mom and my grandmother who have prayed for me.  My grandmother dedicated me to the Lord as a toddler, before my parents were serving God.  I firmly believe it was her giving me to God at a young age that He has had His hand on my life and saw to it, that a friend in high school would invite me to church and my life and families life would be forever changed.  Prayer changes things.  I have watched with my very own eyes, God work on my children's behalf in direct correlation with my prayers. I hope these tools help you in praying for your children.

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