How To Never Forget To Pray For Your Child Again

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We all want the best for our children. We agonize over their choices of friends, make sure they are in well-rounded activities, advocate with their teachers, and stress about their futures. We sacrifice sleep, money, and time to set our children up for success. But are we investing in the one thing that will pay the most dividends in their future?

As followers of Jesus, throughout the Bible, we are commanded to raise our children to know and love God.

Deuteronomy 6:6-8 says, “Write these commandments that I’ve given you today on your hearts. Get them inside of you and then get them inside your children. Talk about them wherever you are, sitting at home or walking in the street; talk about them from the time you get up in the morning to when you fall into bed at night.”

Prayer is the act of talking with God. It is the foundation of a life-long, love relationship with Jesus. It is one of the most powerful gifts that we can pass on to our children. Unfortunately, even though we understand the importance of praying over our children, in practice, we often forget to pray for our child.

Gary McKnight in his article, Equipping Parents for the Spiritual Formation of their Children, says this, “According to the Family Needs Survey conducted by Family Life in 2007-2008 with nearly 40,000 Christian Parents, nearly one-quarter of parents never or rarely prayed with their children, and another one-quarter prayed with their children only occasionally.”

We know prayer is important, but it can be easy to push it aside when frankly, soccer games and college scholarships feel way more real.  We have to remember that our children will only be on this earth for eighty or ninety years. That is a drop in the bucket compared to the thousands of years spent in heaven.  That’s not to say that we don’t prepare our children to become healthy adults but that we also remember our spiritual responsibility as parents.

Gary McKnight continues, “Childhood is a particularly important time for the spiritual formation of children, often setting the basic trajectory for the rest of their lives. George Barna reported that a series of studies showed that “the probability of someone embracing Jesus as his or her savior was 32 percent for those between the ages of five and twelve; 4 percent for those in the thirteen-to eighteen range; and 6 percent for people 19 and older.”

 Let’s find out how to never forget to pray for our child again.

1. Pray For Your Child: The Gift 

There was an older woman at my church, who during my summer day camps, committed to showing up every day and walking the halls of the church, praying protection, and blessing over my students. She understood that there is an ongoing assault on the hearts and minds of our children. Children need adults, like this Godly grandma, who will commit to daily covering them in prayer.

In first Peter, it says this, “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.” 1 Peter 5:8-9

As parents, we do not have to have all the answers. But we are called to contend for the lives of our children. We give our children a gift when we consistently lift them in prayer.  We can do this by praying for them throughout the day whenever they come to mind (more examples below).

Children also need us to model prayer in everyday life. You can check out this article How To Teach Your Kids To Pray When You Have No Clue for three simple steps you can do today to teach your kids to pray.

“Notice that not once did Jesus make his disciples pray. He just kept on praying until they could contain their hunger no longer and asked Him to teach them how to pray.” Pat Lynch, in Awakening the Giant

We want to be parents who give the gift of prayer to our children.  So, let’s get practical, shall we?

2. Pray For Your Child: The Examples

There are some nights when its all you can do to get the kids fed, bathed, and in bed. Your brain is fried and mustering up the energy for prayer can feel overwhelming.

Here are a couple of prayers that I use when I pray for and with my children.  This is not a comprehensive list but a sample to get your wheels turning. I have to be honest my kids love when I pray the same prayers over and over. I think the daily and nightly tradition is comforting.

Bedtime Prayer

“Dear Dad, we thank you and praise you for the gift of our _____ (child’s name).  We pray your hand would rest upon them and they would come to experience an ever-deepening expression of your lavish love for them. Give them ears to hear your voice and eyes to see you, Father.

We pray that you bless them with the wisdom of King Solomon, the courage of Queen Esther, King David’s Heart of Worship, and the faithfulness of Ruth.

 We pray that you would give______ (child’s name) beautiful dreams tonight. Let them dream of running and jumping in meadows, eating cotton candy, riding his/her bike, and floating boats on a stream (insert child’s favorite things to do). And we pray that you would be with ________ (child’s name) in his/her dreams.

We come against bad dreams, and we ask place guardian angels around them while they sleep. Let them sleep feeling safe and protected in your care. We love you, Jesus. In your name, Amen.”