Hi friends! I’ve missed you tons. It’s just about killed me to be connect with you each day like we were during our Spring online study!
I don’t know about you, but summer throws me for a loop when my kids get out of school and normal is nowhere to be found.
And all this amazing plans for things I wanted to do get topsy turvy.
One of the things I decided last weekend that I had to do is set some summer goals to keep me sane. Ya’ll should see me; one minute Im playing doll house, 10 minutes later Im checking emails and trying to return a few calls, while blowing bubbles and re-filling a juice cup; then I’m helping Andrew make flyers and set prices for his new lawn-mowing business while cooking pizza. It’s fun and crazy all at the same time!
So, about my summer-sanity goals… my first goal is to to become more consistent in praying for my kids. This week I decided I’d choose a promise each week to pray for my each of my kids. I thought you might want to join me. Here’s my prayer for this week:
Lord, thank you for the gift of being my children’s mom. I pray that You – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – would help each of my kids understand just how wide, how long, how high and how deep YOUR love is for each of them. Eph 3:18I pray Jesus that You would reveal Your love to them in a unique and personal way this week with a gift that speaks their love language – for Aster the gift of a rainbow, Joshua the gift of words and encouragement and Andrew the gift of knowing You are real, You are present, pursuing and speaking to him.Will You do immeasurably more than this mama can think of or imagine when it comes to how much my kids know Your love. And make me a praying mom, a pursuing-You mom, a vessel You can use to live and love the way you do in my home. In Jesus’ Name, amen.
Want to you join me in praying God’s promises for someone you love?
{Click “Share Your Thoughts” below. I’d love to pray with you for those you love!}
PS. I am still planning on us doing a study on listening to God, but with my kids home 24/7 and them needing food for breakfast, lunch and dinner – every day. Hmm, that little plan and hope of mine got a little postponed. But God’s teaching me a whole lot about listening to Him this summer so I’ll have lots to share on that topic soon. And I’ll keep you posted!
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Renee thanks so mush for the reminder that we need to pray more consistently and compassionately for our children. I have four children 3 of whom are in college and one a Sophomore in High School. All are still living at home except the oldest. My oldest, katheryn is 23. She is a bright beautiful young lady. She lives on her own goes attends college full time and works two jobs. She is very busy. Kate has recently come to us and asked us to move home. She needs to save some money etc. wow, what a struggle this has been for me. I love Kate with all my heart, but boy is she tough. I look back at how hard things in our house were when she was living at home and my first response is NO WAY !!! A part of me wants to say of course let me help you pack and then the other part of me says, but we get along so much better with you not in the house. I pray my father will give me the words to speak to Kate and I pray that my heavenly father show kate that my thoughts on the matter and taking so long to answer her are not because I don’t love her but because I DO !!! I really need direction Father. Please give me the ability and strength to speak to Kate without losing my temper. You are a good and faithful God.
Thanks again Renee. I hope your mother is doing well I keep her and your family in my prayers. Also, do not apologize for the bible study on listening to God. sounds like to me you are listening to him . You are putting YOUR family first and right now that is probably what YOUR Heavenly Father wants you to do.
Please Kate and I in your prayers that I can make the right choice for her and our family.
I love this. Prayer and being intentional and purposeful about it – I keep seeing that all over the place. And I know it is something the Lord has been whispering to my heart about, too. Thanks for sharing your prayer. Thanks for being another voice encouraging me to be specific, to pray His Word, to pray for my girls more than ever. Oh, and I SO get summer turning things topsy-turvy!!! It’s a little wild and crazy over here, too. 🙂 So no pressure. God’s timing for the series on hearing Him will be perfect. Lots of love, K
I really have enjoyed your study on a Confident heart and am planning on going back through the study a little slower this time. It really has helped me through some situations in my life even recently. God is good and I am learning that I do have value in God’s eyes. I am patiently waiting for you to come back but understand about the children. I raised 3 boys so I know how busy your life can get. Will be praying for you and thanks again for all you have done to help women.
I just completed a Level 4 of 5 Levels of an intense discipline class (OSL) and am really looking forward to the last level which along with your study has helped me tremendously.
May God bless you, Renee. I was a part of your Confident Heart study. I really enjoyed it. The video for chapter three, “Letting God Fill the Empty Places in our Hearts” really touched me. I love my children, but I realized I was placing them in a place where only Jesus can fill me up, and it has also helped me see that my daughters are searching to fill their jars up. Help me pray for Tina 22 years old, that God would bring people into her life that truly love God, and for her return to His ways; For Bekah 20 years old, that God would soften her heart and that she would listen to the voice of God who is calling her back to Him, she feels so insecure, so lonely, she really needs to fill her jar with the love of Jesus.. For Paul, 14, that he would continue to seek God and make wise choices. He is the only one left at home and he hears me pray for his sisters. It is so important to let your kids hear you pray for them. Amen? God bless you.
I have been practicing….praying and not worrying….I feel I have to get out of Gods way so that he may work his way with my children. Any new study that you start Renee, I would love to be part of! Hoping you and your family have a wonderful, enlightening, summer….May God shower you with blessings of love.
Sorry for the spelling….tired…going to bed now…
Renee
The last study confident was awesome and set me free ….and it will continue as I have shared and will be sharing with my ladies group of what I learned..
As for your nest study…listening to God. I believe your doing that in spending time with your family and relaxing and enjoying that which The Lord has given you, you will hear from him during this time and your study will be powerful anointed and written with your experiences during your family time…
Blessings,
Patty
I do not have kids to pray for, but I am an aunt who has watched her nephews and neices slide away from the Lord. I feel this prayer could be for aunts and uncles and anyone who loves a child. I have seen what my brothers have been through with thier children as they entered college. My neices and nephews have not been to church during or since college. Thank you for showing me a prayer I can use even for the older kids in my life.
My children have been heavy on my heart. Thank you for the reminder to consistently pray for them.
Cheri, I loved reading your inspiring post today! Yes there are many unique & wonderful people in my life that I will join you in praying for and making this a daily, weekly priority. Although I don’t yet have kids of my own I do hold on to the hope that one day I will be a mother of my own, perhaps through adoption, or any other means the Lord sees fit for me. I am a teacher (a beginning teacher) I just graduated & I want to go ahead and start praying for the children that are not yet brought into my existence but soon shall be. That I may through God’s supernatural wisdom & understanding be able to touch & impact their lives in only ways that He can through my willing spirit! So Thank U!! Many blessing to your unique & wonderfully made children.
Hello Renee,
This is great. Just this morning I was thinking that I should be praying more for my kids. Thank you for your prayer. It is very inspiring. It is so important to pray for them. I am trying to also to listened to God. I can’t wait to do that online study.
Praying with you Line! I love that we can learn and grow together in this journey we’re on – listening, leaning in, and learning day by day.
Thank you Renee! I am reminded that my prayers for our married children and their families need to be specific. I pray for healing of in-law relationships.
Yes, our prayers have power and the more specific we can be the better because we can see God moving in personal and identifiable ways. Im praying with you for your older children and their marriages too!
Thank you for words of wisdom. I pray for all five of my grown children, their spouses and my five grandchildren everyday.
Agreeing with you in prayer Rebecca!
Katharine, being a mom is definitely one of the hardest jobs on earth, the most important role we will probably ever have and with it comes a huge weight of emotional, physical, mental and spiritual responsibility. Im finding myself more dependent on Jesus than ever as a mom in the season of parenting we’re in with 18yr and 15yr old sons and a 4 yr old daughter that is also developmentally delayed. Of all the things God’s called me to – this is by far the one I feel the least equipped for but the more I pray, seek Him, pray for my kids and read books about parenting the more I feel His strength filling in my weakness.
Im praying for you and your kids too!
Thank you Renee, your strength and courage continually inspire me! I need help from God in praying for my children as well. I pray for their future spouses, their strength, their courage, their understanding that EVERY choice has a consequence! Whether it be pleasant, or not so grand!!!!
You know what I love??? That you are a real person who knows her limits and chose to postpone that study until you could do it! So so glad that you LISTENED to HIM and chose the best thing for your family…so in essence, you kinda still did the study on learning to listen to Him. ha!
🙂 You made me smile. Thank you for noticing. That is what God’s been showing me as I wrestled with my decision to try to pull it off or to pour myself into my kids, which is what I could sense God wanted me to do. He is speaking – sometimes it takes me a little longer to listen.
And now that I have stopped resisting the change of plans, peace has replaced all my efforts to figure out how to do both 🙂
Thank you for reminding me that my kids still need me to pray for them. My girls are grown now with husbands. I have one grandson. I find it difficult to deal with the emptiness of my home at times. There is a place in my heart that aches at times for them.
Oh how I pray Jesus will use your prayers for them in really specific ways – to fill those empty gaps and to fill their lives with His peace, purpose and promises. Praying with you for yours kids and grandson!
Thanks Renee for this timely message! 🙂 I love it when God speaks the same thing to others as he does to me, at the same time. This is great confirmation that I am hearing Him and being right where I should be.
I have made a conscious decision to pray more for my kids and grandkids too. I am praying they will each come to know Him on a very personal level – not just the God ‘somewhere out there’. I am also praying the Holy Spirit would draw them and reveal great things to them, make them hungry for the Word and the things of God, and reveal the wisdom and knowledge that can only come from Him. And also that they would teach their children (my grandchildren) the things of God, and that my grandchildren would all come to know Him as their personal Savior as well.
Thanks for the confirmation that I need to pray more for my kids and grankids.
I miss the study too! I’m glad I get your emails though, that still keeps me connected to you. 🙂
May He bless your summer!
Much love,
Susan G.
I’m praying for you and your family. All my children are grown and out of the home now.we have five grand children. The payer needs keep growing. More souls to win to the LORD. = ) OUR God is great and mighty and we can cast all our cares upon Him for He cares for us. God blessings to you.
In Christ Jesus love, Jamie
Thank you. Keep us in prayer.