Prayer

At work this week a mom came in with her two children.  Every morning for the past 2 weeks it has been the same routine; her son would be waiting by the door to come in and then slowly but surely mom and daughter would come in a bit later.  Mom would make a scowling face and daughter would have tears in her eyes, but still a touch of defiance in her eyes.  After mom dropped off both children and was about to leave she made the comment that her and her daughter (5 years old) just don't get along well.  I told her she should pray about it.  She smiled and said "Yeah I should.".  I knew her "Yeah I should" was just an obligatory remark to be nice, but my advice was not meant to obligatory, I really did mean she should bring it before the Lord in prayer.

My Aunt Judy used to tell me that I may not like one of my kids some day.  I thought she was crazy, but she wasn't.  It is not a matter of not liking your kids it is a matter of having a personality conflict. 

The personality conflict did not come between me and one of our children, it was between my husband and Dennis.  Dennis was the ripe old age of 3 or 4 years old and he and my husband did not get along.  I did not like what I was seeing and I saw the potential for greater conflict as Dennis got older; so I prayed.  With in a few weeks the conflicts stopped and my husband and Dennis have gotten along well ever since. 

If you are a mother of young children and you see character issues or flaws PRAY about it while they are young, so it will not become an issue when they are older.  Don't just pray that the issue will go away, but pray that God will give you the wisdom and show you how to deal with it.  Early childhood is the foundation of your child's character development.  If you think they are difficult at the age of 2 wait until they are a teenager (Aunt Judy used to say that too).  Prayer is the starting point for addressing those issues.

I heard Charles Stanley say pray for your children to grow as Jesus did  "in wisdom, stature, in favor with God and men."  I used to pray that for our sons.  My husband is 5'7" and I am 5'6" both of our sons are over 6'.  I feel like the way they have grown both physically and spiritually is because God has blessed us by answering my prayer. 

Pray while they are young.

"The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective."  James 4:16