We All Need Help Raising Godly Kids
Being a parent can be overwhelming. We read all the books; we ask our friends; and we pray hard. Still there are times where we feel like we are failing. We have all been there.
Today I want to pull from the collective wisdom of the internet. This post is a roundup of people I’ve met on Pinterest and found their information helpful. Click over to those that you feel will be helpful and be sure to let them know you have found their suggestions helpful.
10 Blogs to Help Your Lead Your Children to Love God
1. 5 Prayers to Pray Over Your Family
I want to start off with Erika Dawson. She states she caught herself going to parenting books instead of God. She wanted to make a change and focus first on God in prayer for her children. This post lists some prayers she created and some she pulled from others. Each of them help her put God first or her family.
Lord, we so desire to raise our children in a way that pleases you and leads them to you. But even if our children can say all the right things and do what looks right, that doesn’t mean their hearts are in the right place. But you know our hearts, Lord, and you can change them. I pray that you will draw my children’s hearts close to you.
You can read her whole post at ForTheFamily.org
2. Pray for Your Children
Focus on the Family pulled together several friends of the ministry to share how they pray for their children. One creative suggestion was to create a scrapbook of the prayers you have prayed over your children. It’s a special reminder of the different seasons of your child’s life and a keepsake I’m sure many will treasure.
Pray they will…
- Enjoy their God-given life.
- Learn and grow.
- Have God’s wisdom to handle life’s challenges.
- Pursue a personal relationship with Christ.
- Learn from their mistakes.
Pray that…
- God will be their guide.
- God will help them love who He has created them to be.
- God’s glory will permeate their lives.
You can find the article on the Focus on the Family website
3. 4 Prayers For Our Daughters
Timberley Gray felt the Holy Spirit convicted her heart to pray for her daughters and created some great prayers that can also spur us to pray for our children. While Timberley had her daughters in mind with these prayers, the topics can easily translate to boys.
There are 4 areas the Holy Spirit convicted my heart to pray for; her heart, her love for God, her love for others and the love for herself.
You can find her post on the LivingOurPriorities site she runs with her husband.
4. Praying for Your Children to Love Each Other Well
In this post, Lori Schumaker shares her story of what she prayed for her sons during the time they were adopting their daughter. It’s a precious read, especially as she relates to how looking back God has answered some of those prayers.
I prayed for God to:
- Prepare their hearts to love their someday sister well in all circumstances.
- Place a desire in them to be Godly role models for her.
- Instill gentleness within them for all matters pertaining to their sister.
- Extinguish any jealousy from rising up within them.
- Reveal Himself to them as the very Heart of adoption.
- Ignite a passion within them to forever advocate for adoption.
You can read the whole story on her site: LoriSchumaker.com
5. A Prayer for Your Child’s Humility
Kaylene Yoder has created a site filled with simple prayers you can pray over your kids for any situation. This particular post is a powerful prayer fro humility in them.
Father, You tell us that You bless a humble person with wealth, honor life and wisdom (Proverbs 11:2, 22:4). So develop in my child a heart that is gentle and compliant to Your will, always ready to do what is good, to slander no one, to love and promote peace, to be considerate, demonstrating humility toward all (Titus 3:1-2).
You can find this prayer and others at KayleneYoder.com.
6. How to Intentionally Speak Life over Your Kids
Amy Zurowski found that her kids had all sorts of things spoken into their lives each day and most were not necessarily things she wanted them to hear or believe. Intentionally speaking over them seemed like a good way to counter those messages and make a difference.
Amy will pull you in with her story, and then convince you of the importance of speaking life over your children.
- “You are a child of God”
- “God has a purpose and a plan for your life”
- “You are very special”
- “There is no one like you”
- “You are called by name”
- “You are beautiful on the inside and the outside”
- “You will choose to walk with the Lord today”
- “You will listen to Mommy and Daddy”
- “You will have courage to make the right choices”
- “You will be kind”
- “You will put on the full armor of God”
Her full blog post is over on the FaithfulMoms blog.
7. 9 Psalms to Read with Your Kids at Bedtime
While I don’t know any of us who will think reading the Bible to our kids at night is bad, Jenn Thorson gives a great exhortation on why we should be diligent in doing this. Jenn also gives you nine Psalms to read to your kids, but these five things are worth dwelling on.
- They will sleep better because reading helps a child wind down better than TV.
- Their stress level reduces by as much as 60 percent because your body is focused on what you’re reading/hearing rather than other stressors.
- Words boost memory, because they links to the right half of the brain, which regulates emotion.
- Sleep forms new connections, and the things read right before bed will be retained significantly better than things read earlier in the day
- Your child’s dreams will likely be sweeter, because they are often influenced by what we’ve most recently thought, talked or read about.
Lovely thoughts and an easy way to build into our children. You can read the whole post on her PurposefulMom site.
8. 9 Unique Ways for Your Child to Spend Time with Jesus
No matter how great our kids are, there may be times where they rebel from reading the Bible. Alexis Dasari gives nine ways to get your children to connect with Jesus beyond just reading the Bible.
- Art
- Journal
- Poetry
- Drama
- Stories of the Bible
- Visual Bible Stories
- Song
- Physical Activity
- Praying the Psalms
Go to her MostImportWork site to read how she explains what each of the nine can look like.
9. 3 Powerful Prayers for My Daughter as She Grows Up
Alisa Nicaud says it’s in her moments of surrender to God that she gains perspective to know just what to pray and how to pray for her girls. This is good advice for all of us.
- Her Mind and Thoughts
- Her Body Image
- Her Relationships
Check out her FlourishingToday blog to read the full article.
10. 4 Verses to Pray to Help Your Son Be a Man of God
Brooke McGlothlin, author of praying for boys, says that praying God’s Word for her boys reminded her of His many promises and fueled her faith. In this post and three more in a similar series, Brooke leads you in encouragement to believe God’s word for your boys.
- Lord, give him a heart softened toward you.
- Lord, give him a clean heart.
- Lord, let him desire you alone.
- Lord, may he find his strength, and the true power of manhood, in you.
You can read the full post on her Mob Society Blog.
Leading Your Children to Love Jesus
I hope you enjoyed this list of resources for spiritually leading your children to a love for God. Feel free to also check out the resources here on the Prayer-Coach site that are listed below.
- 10 Things to Pray for Your Children – Susie Kuykendall
- 10 Things to Pray for Your Kids – Kevin Shorter
- How to Get Your Children to Love Jesus for a Lifetime
- Leading Your Kids to Love God for Themselves
- What Kids’ Prayers Can Teach Us
Use the comments below to leave more resources that you have.