August 2020
Watching our children grow is one of the best things but also one of the hardest. That is why it is never too early or too late to start praying blessings over your child. In the book “The Love Dare for Parents”, The authors state that to bless someone means to “speak well” of that person. When a parent blesses their child it is verbally affirming their child for who they are and also encourages them for a successful future. Our adult children’s needs may be all different but they could always use a prayer of blessing. Praying for their well being needs to be one of our top priorities.We need to remember that our words can carry a lot of weight in our kids lives and we should always be looking for opportunities to see and talk to our children on how God is using their gifts and talents. This will also help them see that their lives have value and purpose. It will give them a good self-esteem, confidence and know that they are loved.
Do we still pray a blessing over our children even if they are not walking with the Lord or making choices that don’t line up with what we think they should be doing? The answer is, YES! No matter what our kids' choices are in life, whether good or bad, we are called to love them. We can’t control their choices or their lifestyle, we need to leave that to God. We just need to love and let them know our love isn't conditional. We should always be pointing out how grateful we are to see where God is using their gifts in life. This will be hard to do but a blessing isn’t an endorsement. It is an acknowledgment that we are not trying to control our child’s future but we are handing it over to God. Trusting God will give them a vision for using their gifts and talents.
A blessing prayer can also lead to a prayer of releasing. We need to release our children into God’s protecting arms and affirm them with what they are doing. As we pray God’s blessing on our children, we need to release our plans we have for them and trust that God will accomplish what His plans are. When we take scripture and use them to pray over our children we are covering them with the presence of Christ.
Here is an example of one of the scripture based prayers we will use:
For Yourself:
Heavenly Father…
Let my words be helpful for building my children up according to their needs, so that what I say will be a benefit to them.
Ephesians 4:29
For Your Children:
Heavenly Father…
Bless _____ and keep him; may your face shine on him. Turn your face toward _____ and give him peace.
Numbers 6:24-26
Join us on Sunday August 23rd, at 4:30pm for the next Next Generations Prayer meeting.
For more scripture based prayers for this topic please email me amoll@harvestpittsburghnorth.org
Citation:
Berndt, Jodie. Praying Scriptures for Your Adult Children. 2017. Pg 27-39