Hint, hint...there MIGHT be a giveaway at the end of this post.
The week after New Year's I took some time to evaluate priorities and seek wisdom from the Lord on where to go in 2010.
I know many of you did the same thing.
There were two main questions I sought answers to from the Lord.
1. What are my priorities?
2. Who am I Lord? Who do you WANT me to be?
Right after turning out the lights that first night I laid my head down and began to pray question number one, "What are my priorities Lord?"
Within just a few moments my youngest son, now just two, began to cry for me. I hopped up out of bed and opened the door to his bedroom. His little body was right in front of the door, sitting there for who knows for how long? When I squeezed through the opening he reached up his precious little hands to me and said, "Mommy, want you!" I scooped him up and we took a few moments to rock his fears away.
And I knew.
I'm Mommy. And I love being Mommy. He needs Mommy right now. And I want to be all the Lord has called me to be in his life...and in his older brother's life. Priorities.
One of the ways I'm practically walking out this priority in the new year is by creating a conglomeration of Scriptures to pray for my two little ones. And I'm committing to pray this prayer for them every day in the year 2010. I hope I have it memorized by the time 2011 comes. And I hope to make this a new tradition for my children and along the way fill their memory books with the prayers of their mother's heart for them when they were in my home.
Here's my prayer:
"Lord, You alone change hearts of stone, to hearts of flesh. Place Your Spirit within my children and cause them to walk in Your statutes and to be careful to obey Your rules. For You know the plans You have for them; plans to prosper them and not to harm them, to give them a future and a hope. Let them fear You Lord, and thus have a foundation for wisdom and a heart for instruction. Let them receive wisdom and incline their hearts to understanding. Help them not to lean on their own limited understanding, but in all their ways to acknowledge You so that their paths will be straight. Protect them from walking in the counsel of the wicked and standing in the way of sinners, but lead them to delight in the law of the Lord and meditate on it day and night. May they abide in the shadow of the Almighty and not fear the terror by night. May they walk by the Spirit and not gratify the desires of the flesh. Instead, may they be filled with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. May their minds and thoughts be fixed on whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, anything worthy of praise. May they not be conformed to this world, but transformed by the renewal of their minds. May they discern the good, acceptable and perfect will of God. May their love be genuine. May they abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. May they love one another with brotherly affection, outdoing one another in honor. May they do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than themselves. May they lie down and sleep in peace; for You alone, O Lord, make them to dwell in safety. Bless them Lord, and keep them, and make Your face shine upon them...and be gracious to them."
(Scripture references: Ezekiel 36:26-27, Jeremiah 29:11, Proverbs 2, Proverbs 3:5-6, Psalm 1:3, Psalm 91, Galatians 5:16&22, Philippians 4:8, Romans 12:2, Romans 12:9-10, Psalm 4:8, Numbers 6:24).
May I encourage you to embrace praying for your children on a deeper level this year? You don't have to pray my prayer word-for-word. Rather, let it be a starting place to spur you on in creating a prayer that is tailored to the specific needs of your own children. There's something powerful in praying the Word.
Wait a minute...
I don't want to just encourage you to pray for your children...
I want to challenge you to pray for your children!
Can you commit with me to praying Scripture over your children every day that's left in 2010? I'm calling it "A Year of Prayer at A Life in Need of Change", and I couldn't be more excited to see what God will do in and through it. My guess is that the person it will affect the most...is me.
If you should choose to accept my challenge you can show off your commitment and encourage others to join in by placing this button on your blogs linking people back to this post. (Grab the HTML at the top, right-hand side of my blog).
BIG, HUGE thank you to Erin from Closing Time for helping me with the buttons!
Oh...I guess you'd like to know what the giveaway is, right? A little something nice for momma this time. Cause let's face it...prayer or not...being a momma is hard. And the least I can do is help you smell good while you're praying!
Check out these lovely linen lavendar sachets made by Kimberly Layton (or @ForeverWherever for you Twitter lovers). They retail for $15.
Check out all of Kim's beautiful sachets at The Lavender Road.
To enter simply write a blog post sharing your prayer and committment to "A Year of Prayer at A Life in Need of Change," place the button on your blog and then link up your post below. Linky closes at 10PM tonight (My brain shuts off at about 10 guys...so sorry for you late night owls...) Winner announced tomorrow (Tuesday)!
Looking for today's Fresh Year, Fresh Start post? Lori's post today challenges us to stanf by our men, no matter what. Please don't miss it. Hop over to Argyle & Apricots to read "For Better or For Worse." For a list of all the FYFS links click the FYFS button at the top, right-hand side of my blog.
Now...Get to writing friends! And get excited about the high calling of praying for your children! Be sure to come back and link up when you're done...
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