Last year during the Lenten season,
God told me to pour into my family and keep a record of how I was being
intentional with them. I did just that,
blogged about it and within six months it had actually become my first book. That is NOT God’s mandate for me this time.
Let me show you how God works though.
This week, my family and I visited
Barnes & Noble bookstore. (That’s
when I actually saw my own book on the bookshelf in the parenting section. THANKYA! )
Yes, I screamed and took pictures with the boys but that wasn’t the only
thing God wanted me to see. In the Christian section, I saw the name Mark
Batterson. This was familiar because I
had just completed reading his book, The Circle Maker and my husband is
actually teaching from it in Bible study.
It’s a powerful book! One that
will change how you pray . The title of
this book was different though. This
book is Praying Circles around the Lives of Your Children. This title immediately caught my attention
because I had just mentioned to my husband less than 2-weeks ago that I wanted
to make sure that our children are getting their Christian foundation from us
and not from Children’s or Youth Church.
Let me let you in on a little
secret….oftimes when you Pastor a congregation, you get caught up in the job of
saving everyone else and your children get the leftovers. This is why there’s a running joke
about Preacher’s kids. For this reason,
I have not been to Bible study consistently during this past year to manage the
boys’ schedules. We are mindful and intentional about it! While Byron is at
church, I’m at home praying for him as he ministers, while ministering to our own
children as I carry them home from school and practice, feed them, help them
with homework and try to shut the house down at a decent hour. Yes it’s a sacrifice and sometimes I feel
like I’m missing something (our Bible study is off the chain), but in the end I
refuse to let my children be the punch-line to Preachers kids jokes.
For this reason, the title of the
book really caught my attention!
Yesterday while waiting on the boys to get out of school, I sat in a
sandwich shop and began reading the book. I could not put it down and started
praying for my boys right there at the table.
Then I put out a call on Facebook for my friends to pray a blessing over
their children. Batterson mentions in
the book about hyperlinking your prayers to scripture. Not just reading the Bible, but praying the
Bible. So I asked my friends to pray
Luke 2:52, “May (insert child’s name here) grow in wisdom and stature and
find favor with God and men”.
As I lay in bed this morning, God
gave me the latest assignment. I am to
leverage social media
(#prayforourchildren2015), during the remainder of the Lenten season to
start a prayer circle around each other’s children. Join me on Facebook, twitter and instagram to
intercede for all of our children and pray circles around them. I am here today, because my parents prayed
for me and over me! (Although Mommy has been gone for 2 years, her prayer never
dies. Even my mother-in-law references
her father praying for unborn generations.) Prayer works my friend!
So join me, as we lead up to
Resurrection Sunday, to #prayforourchildren2015. Even if you don’t have children, you know a
child who needs your prayers. IF YOU ARE
A PRAYER WARRIOR, please pray over the requests daily. The Bible says in James
5:16, “The earnest
prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results”.
(New Living Translation)
Let’s
produce wonderful results in the lives of children EVERYWHERE!
Follow
me on Instagram and Twitter @soul2soledoctor
Now
walk it out……………………………………and start circling your child in prayer.
#prayforourchildren2015
