February 2020
Humble. My teenager has asked my husband and I what that word means many times. Trying to explain it is hard and even harder for a teenager to understand. When you google the word humble, this is what it says its meaning is; adjective- having or showing a modest or low estimate of one's own importance. And as a verb- lower indignity or importance (google.com) One way we explained it to our daughter was, putting others needs before you own. For a teenager that concept can be pretty hard to understand. That's why we should be praying for our children to have a humble heart. It doesn't come naturally to any human and is even good to be praying for ourselves!
God wants us to be humble and teachable at all times. He uses our peers, coaches, parents, teachers, and bosses to help us accept things we may not understand. God doesn't want us to be stubborn, proud or wanting to quit or argue when we don't understand why we didn't get our way or what we want. When we humble ourselves to our peers, teachers or coaches we help make their lives easier instead of arguing with them. If we can pray for our children to accept things and not fight back and to be humble when something occurs that they may not agree with, then they will be able t o respect and obey God when He commands them to do something that they may not want to do or understand why to do it.
One of the stories from this chapter in the book Praying the Scriptures for Your Teenager (pg 43) the mom states “ I think that is how God looks at us. He is always watching us to see how we respond to corrections and how we react when things don't go our way”. I agree with this. God is always watching. And if we respond in a negative way when we don't get our way, I feel it is a sin. Negative reactions do not bring glory to God.
Praying for your child and teen to have a humble and teachable heart and able to submit to authority will help them reap God’s rewards.
Here are some examples of some scriptures we will be praying for our next generation at our NGP prayer group meeting February 16th at 630pm
Teach __________ to listen to advice and accept instruction so that, in the end he will be wise. Proverbs 19:20
Cause __________ to be submissive and respectful toward those who are older and more experienced than he is. Let him be clothed with humility, remembering that you oppose the proud but give grace to the humble, and that you will lift him up in due time. 1Peter 5:5-6
Join us on Sunday, February 16th at 6:30 pm in the Harvest Kids wing for more scripture based prayers on praying for your child’s spiritual protection.
Citation:
Berndt, Jodie. (2007) Praying the Scriptures for Your Teenagers , ( pg 43-53)