How To Pray For Your Children

There’s a powerful undercurrent for good for us to harness in the lives of our children. It’s prayer. Jesus said,

“If you, imperfect as you are, know how to lovingly take care of your children… how much more ready is your heavenly Father to give wonderful gifts to those who ask him?” (Matthew 7:11 TPT) 

Wonderful gifts! 

Pray in the everyday and the ordinary

When my daughter, Georgie, first went to playgroup, she really didn’t like being left there. And it was so hard for me to walk away knowing she wasn’t feeling confident or brave that day. Jesus said

“So don’t worry. For your Father cares deeply about even the smallest detail of your life.” (Matthew 10:30-31 TPT)

I was so glad God loved my daughter even more than I did and heard my prayers. When I went to collect her after her first day at playgroup, she beamed when she saw me: “Mummy, a kind boy let me go in the big car.” It was the early 90s and the Little Tikes Cosy Coupe was the latest thing. She didn’t actually have one herself, but it would have been top of her Christmas list every time and God knew exactly what would set her day on fire!

Pray for salvation

We’d always gone to church as a family every Sunday but as my daughter got to the top of the Primary School she became more and more unwilling to go. I felt she was going to turn round one day soon and say, “I’m not coming with you today,” and I knew that would break my heart. My prayers during that time were for her to meet Jesus for herself. A friend stood with me and we’d meet to pray together weekly. Another spiritual Grandma, Pat, was also praying with us at this time. We really were bending God’s ear! Then my husband Steve preached his first ever sermon: Doing things for the first time. He finished by asking if anyone wanted to give their life to God ‘for the first time’. My daughter came over to me as the service finished in floods of tears. I’d no idea what was wrong and nor did she. But Pat did! “I think God is speaking to you, Georgie,” she said. And that was when Georgie met Jesus for herself. What a team effort that was!

Pray for people to come into their lives

The book of Proverbs in the Bible is full of good advice for living life well. On the subject of friendship the author says,

“If you want to grow in wisdom, spend time with the wise.” (Proverbs 13:20 TPT)

We can’t choose our children’s friends for them, but we can pray that God will send significant influencers to impact them as they grow up. One such person in my daughter’s life was a teenager who came to babysit for us. Just a few years older, Laura was a very important role model in my daughter’s life. She would pray with her when it was time for bed and then hide a little note for her to find in the morning. She was naturally inclusive, so got Georgie involved with all her friends. She didn’t drink alcohol at parties and was the coolest person Georgie knew. Laura’s example and influence was priceless.

Pray for the future

One of the hardest things for teenagers to handle is the expectation that they know what they want to do when they leave school. It can be a real pressure. God reminds us in Jeremiah 29:11 that he’s done some phenomenal future planning for our children: “For I know the plans and thoughts I have for you,” says the Lord, “plans for peace and well-being and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” (AMP) Praying for Georgie’s future has literally blown my mind. One spring morning we were out with friends in London, walking along the river Thames in the sunshine and loving it. “I could so live here!” Georgie said as we walked across the bridge and up through Putney High Street. Fast forward to A Level results day and an unexpected dip on one of her A Level grades. She was straight on to the Clearing hotline, secured a place on a fabulous course at Roehampton University and went to live - yes, you’ve guessed it - in Putney Vale. She settled into a brilliant church there and had the most amazing experiences working at the Chelsea Flower Show and designing a marketing campaign for Bosch power tools. ‘Plans for peace and well-being’? Oh yes…! And some!

The day of her 21st birthday, Georgie said she had someone for us to meet. Steve and I shamelessly hung out the hotel window to get a glimpse of this someone before we were officially introduced. As soon as I saw Peter walking down the road, hand in hand with Georgie, the thought flashed through my mind, “I am about to meet the answer to my prayers.” A Christian husband for my daughter had been top of my list since she was born. Peter is that and a whole lot more besides. “If you, imperfect as you are, know how to lovingly take care of your children… how much more ready is your heavenly Father to give wonderful gifts to those who ask him?”

Pray prophetically

Being involved in a charismatic house church in the 80s meant we were surrounded by encouraging people who loved to speak life to each other. When Georgie was born, my neighbour said, “This baby comes with healing hands.” When she was dedicated we sang ‘I’m not ashamed of the gospel’ and an old family friend said, “Georgie, you’ll be a voice for your generation.” When she was baptised someone presented her with the English flag, with its red cross of St George, as a reminder that she would be a blessing to the people of this country. Like Mary, I kept all these things in my heart and thought and prayed about them often. (Luke 2:19 NLT) Georgie was certainly a beautiful healer for my husband and I - a rainbow baby, a gifted sleeper, and she loved being cuddled. I’ve seen her healing hands at work many times since. It would be hard to say what it is exactly that she does, but friends and colleagues will say that life's better when she’s around. She’s certainly never been ashamed of sharing her faith and her social media is full of positive hope. And, in the most crazy twist of all, she works for The Charity for Civil Servants, a very proper and traditional English institution, who help anyone in the Civil Service who has fallen on hard times.

Your children may not have had the same Church background and you may not have words to treasure and mull over in your prayers like I did, but it’s never too late to ask God to give you dreams for your children. He’s just waiting for you to ask him to get involved!

Liz Low