The following is an excerpt from Don’t Make Me Count to Three!  A Mom’s Look at Heart-Oriented Discipline by Ginger Plowman.  She has helpfully stated the benefit and necessity of prayer in the lives of parents and children.  Though prayer is often one of the most difficult aspects of Christian discipline, this is a good reminder to keep it up.  Plowman’s words are especially useful, I believe, because she directs parents to the power and sufficiency of Scripture.  Take her thoughts to heart:

"No matter what stage of life our children are in, the most important thing we can do for them is pray for them.  Whether they’re in diapers, danger, love, rebellion, or a sports car, our most powerful and effective tool in parenting is fervent prayer over every aspect of their lives.

As parents cursed with a sin nature, we are bound to mess up.  We will make some wrong decisions.  From time to time we will lose our temper—or shall I say, we will find it!  Because we are not perfect, we will let our children down, set poor examples, and fail them in more ways than one.  However, there is one thing that will always reap fruit and never return void.  We can pray for our children in accordance with God’s Word.  Stormie Omartian says, “Being a perfect parent doesn’t matter.  Being a praying parents does.”

To pray for our children directly from God’s Word is to pray in harmony with God’s perfect will for their lives.  It is to bind up our shallow and vain desires and unleash the wisdom and power of our mighty Lord.  When we pray from God’s Word, we surrender our foolish misconceptions of what is best by acknowledging that God’s ways are not our ways.  To pray from the Scriptures is to seek the will of the Father rather than the will of the parent.  “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord.  “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isa. 55:8-9).

Why should we pray?

Prayer is a command of God—“Be joyful always; pray continually; giving thanks to God in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thess. 5:16-18).

Prayer draws us near to God—“What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to him?” (Deut. 4:7).

Prayer releases God’s power—“Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.  The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective” (James 5:16).

This coming week, many from the children’s ministry will be traveling to Jackson, MS for CentriKid camp.  We will spend five days and four nights on the campus of Millsaps College, returning Friday afternoon.  Children will participate in several different types of activities including small group Bible studies and recreation with kids from different churches across the country, corporate worship and group time with our church group, and various track times throughout the week.

Overall, the few days will likely fly by and be jam-packed with high-energy fun.  The few adults who are chaperoning will likely be ready for the conclusion and a good long nap, while the children will not want to leave and will be immediately ready for next year.  Nonetheless, camp has a purpose beyond the high-energy fun—to impart the truth of God’s Word to children in a way that they learn, retain, and are brought to worship.

Would you pray with us over the next week that God will work fruitfully in the lives of children through the instrument of His Word?

When it comes to prayer, I am not where I would like to be in matters of discipline.  In fact, I think prayer is the hardest discipline for me to be consistent with.  I listen to myself too much about all the things I need to get done.   Most of the time, I just forget how prayer helps me to be in-line with the will of God.  For example:

- when I pray for a friend struggling with sin, I am reminded to encourage them to stay faithful to the Word of God.

- when I pray for the lost soul of a friend or family member,  I am challenged to witness and emboldened to speak the Gospel, trusting that God may use me as part of the answer tomy own prayer.

- when I pray for an enemy or someone who has wronged me, my heart is turned to compassion for them.  I really begin to love them and to desire a reconciled relationship with them.

Sometimes, I pray cheaply and quickly, feeling like I have done my duty to bring them before the throne of God.  However, I have done a disservice to both them and me when I do not honestly seek the throne of the Sovereign Holy God on their behalf.  I have both fooled myself in thinking that I have ministered to them and I have robbed myself of the blessing of crying out in petition for someone.

In Colossians 1:9-14, Paul demonstrates why he is one of the greatest examples of a man crying out to God on behalf of another.  In this passage, Paul isn’t crying out for a close friend, a family member, or even someone who has been a close acquaintance to him.  He is crying out to God on behalf of a people he hasn’t even met.  He has only heard of them.  And from the day that he heard of them, he hasn’t “ceased to pray for them.” 

I want to urge you to learn from his example and begin to pray for others in some of the ways Paul prays for the Colossians here in chapter 1.  Let’s look at them briefly:

Let the whole militant Church of Christ be blessed; put power into all faithful ministries; convert this country; save it from abounding sin; let all nations of the earth know the Lord... Bring the Church to break down all bonds of nationality, all limits of sects, and may we feel the blessed unity which is the very glory of the Church of Christ; yea, let the whole earth be filled with His glory.  Our prayer can never cease until we reach this point: 'Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.'  Nothing less than this can we ask for.