Praying for Our Kids: A Plan for Prayer

Inside: Free Printable Plan to help you in your journey of praying for your children.

• Miss Clara calls it a strategic battle plan in the movie, The War Room.
• Beth Moore teaches about Praying God’s Word over others.
• Stormie O’Martin writes about the power of a praying wife and mom.

God says, “The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.” James 5:16

The first time I talked to the Lord was at a friend’s wedding. I’d never heard anyone simply talk to the Lord before and my heart beat faster and faster and faster as the Spirit fell.

I wanted more of whatever that was in my life.

The first time the Lord “unlocked His word to me” was in the middle of the night at a moment of desperation. I had no one to talk to, nowhere to run, no place to go, so I hit my knees and opened my Bible. “Lord, if You’re truly there I need You to speak to me now and tell me what to do.”

My eyes fell to His book and words jumped off the page.

Since becoming a Christian at the age of 24, I have learned that I need a few lifetimes to learn what it means to follow the Lord and to be more like Jesus. I am no expert.

I’m just a girl who believes the words in red and spends a great deal of time talking to the unseen, but very real Lord of the Universe.

~Bekki Sayler

I am convinced that prayer is the main “thing” that God wants me to do in my day, and yet I am consistently shocked at how hard it is to pray and how quickly my life falls apart when I don’t.

Related: {FREE} Simple Plan for Praying for My Children {Printable}

And yet I’ve also tasted and seen that the Lord is good. I’ve seen Him move mountains, soften hearts, and do things that shouldn’t be possible.

Not because I prayed, but because He is God.

I truly believe prayer is God’s way of whispering in our hearts that He is working. He doesn’t want us to miss it. He wants us to see Him in action.

So, He burdens our hearts and draws us to our knees.

If we are asking the Lord to move a mountain, that means we are looking right at it when He places His hand on the base and scoots it to the side.

We get to stand there in shock, eyes popping out of our heads and hearts beating 1000 x’s faster because He caught our attention and made sure we were looking before He did anything.

Because He delights in us and wants us to delight in Him too.

So our hearts are heavy for our kids.

That’s a really good thing. We want to be looking right at them when God moves in their lives. The God of the universe is tapping on your heart, my heart, our hearts to get us to look… so we can glorify Him when He does His work.

The enemy Wants Us To Be Distracted.

Checking Facebook, watching silly cats on YouTube, or fighting with our closest people.

He wants us to be overwhelmed by how

• Far behind our kids are
• Out of control the laundry is
• Tight our jeans are

He will do anything to keep us from “looking”. He wants to rob the Lord from being able to share His Goodness, Grace, Mercy and Truth with you and me. He doesn’t want us to see.

It’s like being in the theater to watch an amazing film, when right at the climax of the story, the woman two rows in from of you, just to the right, opens up her phone and begins scrolling through Facebook.

The light on her phone draws our eyes away from the screen and we miss the highlight of the movie. All because someone needed to scroll through Facebook.

We Need a Plan.

Not a step 1, 2, 3 type plan. More of a revelation.

God wants us to see Him in action. He taps on our hearts to show us where to look, where to wait, where to anticipate. Our job is to turn our heads and keep our eyes open.

For as long as it takes.

Because God likes the revelation to be mind-blowing.

So He builds up anticipation.

We need a plan.

• Acknowledge that burdens of our hearts are there to get us to “look at ME!”
• The right filter to look at situations (God’s word)
• A pocket of time set aside to gaze at Him.
• A battle plan for when the enemy sudden turns on his cell phone.

“I Don’t Have Time to Pray!”

“I don’t want to pray. Every time I spend time in prayer all heck breaks loose!”

Prayer is the single greatest thing you can do for your kids.

You need to dedicate yourself to be knocking on the Lord’s door continually for the sake of your kids.

~Bekki Sayler

Not with a laundry list of “I wish my kid would, or wouldn’t do this,” but bathe them in scripture filled prayer.

Before I go any further…

I am nothing without Jesus. He is the very air I breathe, and yet I have to confess. There are many days that I hardly acknowledge He is right here with me. I become so overwhelmed with my life, my dreams, my expectations that I neglect my first love.

I need this reminder as much as the next mom.

Although I have spent a lot of my saved life in prayer, I feel like I’ve barely touched the surface. I can pray more often, more earnestly, more consistently.

I want to be looking where the Lord wants my attention to be focused.

Thank goodness the Lord loves me, loves you, loves us right where we are!

Condemnation is NOT from the Lord.  When you hear whispers about how unfaithful you are- remember:

The enemy will be against you spending time with the Lord.

• The toilet will overflow
• The puppy will wake up early
• The kids will have a fever

Be prepared to take whatever plan you come up with “on the road”.

Find times where you will be reminded to pray everyday. We all have repeated habits or behavior. A simple plan is to convert that time to prayer time.

Lesson from my husband.

My husband taught me to pray when doing the repeated brainless tasks in the day. “Find something you do over and over again and use that as a reminder to pray.” 

~Craig Sayler

For me, it’s when I dry and style my hair. I converted my hair dryer into a prayer dryer. As I am doing my hair I spend time in prayer. Not because I’m holy, but because I’m forgetful and  have really long hair.

So I took a sharpie pen and wrote Prayer Dryer on the side of my blow dryer. It’s there to remind me. That 5-20 minutes drying my hair can be used for eternity.

I’ve even written peoples names on the dryer so I remember to pray specifically for them. Yes, I really am that forgetful. But The Lord is THAT faithful. He never forgets! I’m so thankful for tip from my husband!

In my 25 years as a believer I’ve found different pockets of consistent prayer time. It always comes under incredible attack. My heart knows, “the bigger the attacks mean I’m heading in the right direction and the enemy is running around turning on his cell phone trying to distract me.”

Every person has different pockets of time that can be used for focused prayer: early in the morning, driving hither and yon, styling hair, or nursing a baby.

But the Lord wants us to be chatting with Him all day long too. While pockets of “just me and Jesus” are amazing and necessary, so is the unceasing prayer as we weave praise, worship, intercession, and silence throughout our day.

We need to look  for the Lord in everything we do. He’s right there with us.

Grab your {FREE} Simple Plan for Praying for My Children {Printable}

Bible Studies for Kids:

• Bible Study Printables: Romans 15:13
• Days of Creation Board Game
• Days of Creation Printables
• Days of Creation Food Ideas (free)
• Sunday School Activities: Fruits of the Spirit
• Bible Study BUNDLE #1
• Daniel 1: Bible Study and Children’s Ministry Activities
• Bible Object Lessons for Kids: Waterfalls
• Bible Fun for Kids: ABCs of God’s Character
• Advent Activities for Kids: Freebie
• Advent Activities for Kids- Complete
• Bible Study: What Can I Learn from the Camel
• Bible Study: Pearl of Great Price- Matthew 13:45-46
• Bible Study: Transfiguration of Jesus- Matthew 17
• Daniel 4: King Nebuchadnezzar’s Tree Dream
• Sunday School Lessons on Prayer for Preschoolers
• Bible Study for Kids: What Can I Learn From the Ant?
• Memory verse for kids: Exodus 14:14

My personal statement of faith:

I believe the Bible to be the inspired, the only infallible, authoritative Word of God.

I believe that there is one God, eternally existent in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

I believe in the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, in His virgin birth, in His sinless life and atoning death through His shed blood, in His bodily resurrection, in His ascension to the right hand of the Father, and in His personal return in power and glory.

I believe “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” and that we are saved by faith in Jesus.

My favorite Bible teachers are my husband (Craig Sayler), Pastor Jon Courson, Pastor Chuck Smith, CH Spurgeon.

Print this free homeschool mom reminder.

This post comes with a free printable reminder list to help keep your heart focused on the heart of homeschooling. I always have the hardest staying focused. This printable simplifies it!

Here is a sneak preview…

Download Your Free Printable

1. Download the checklist. You’ll get the printable, plus join 9,000+ homeschool moms who receive my weekly parenting tips and ideas!
2. Print. Any paper will do the trick, but card stock would be ideal.
3. Place it on your refrigerator as a helpful reminder.

Want more posts on homeschooling from the heart?

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