Praying Scripture

Before Little E was born I received a great book called Praying the Scriptures for Your Children: Discover How to Pray God's Will for Their Lives by Jodie Berndt. Each chapter starts with stories related to each topic and how prayers have been answered. Last night I was reading a chapter called Praying for Your Child to Promote God's Kingdom. Daddy and I thought it was great, so I thought I would share. We both know this is how we need to pray, but as new parents it is so hard! But our God is so much bigger than we are and knows all, especially what is best for my child! Enjoy!

Prepare Yourself for God's Answer

Of course, when we pray that our children would proclaim the gospel, we open the door to a host of other factors--some of which no mother would actually choose for her child. We cannot see the future, and we do not know how God will answer our prayers. Perhaps God will shape our children into skilled business leaders who can give generous financial support to his work. Perhaps he will cause them to experience sickness or tragedy so that they can minister with compassion where others have no capacity to understand. Maybe he will send them overseas to some far-off country where the gospel has never been heard.

Hudson Taylor, the first Christian missionary to take the message of the gospel to inland China, is one of my father's heroes. My siblings and I grew up hearing exciting tales about Taylor's life, and when my own children learned to read, I bought them a biography that detailed his adventures. The book told of his passion for learning Chinese and sharing Christ with a people whose language and customs he could barely comprehend. It also told of the hardships and pain he faced, including the loss of his wife and three of his children.

What struck me even more than these difficulties, though, was a short paragraph recounting Taylor's departure from England at the age of twenty-one:

His full heart almost broke at the sight of his mother standing on the pier waving good-bye. She had come aboard to be sure his cabin was adequate, and together they had sung a hymn and knelt in prayer. And then she had returned to the pier while he remained on board. Not until the very moment of parting from his family did Hudson understand the price they were all paying by his obedience to God's call.

When Hudson Taylor left for China, his family didn't know whether they would ever see him again. The journey by ship was perilous, taking six months to complete. Would I be willing to say good-bye to my son or one of my daughters, never knowing if I would see him or her again? Would I be willing--cheerfully, peacefully, wholeheartedly willing--to let them work or minister where their lives or those of their children might be at risk?

I truly hope so. I love the way another mother expressed her feelings on this subject more than a hundred years ago. Annie Rossell Fraser had prayed that at least one of her children would become a missionary, and when her son Jim left to begin working with Hudson Taylor's organizations in the faraway mountains of inland China, she felt a mixture of heartache and joy. She knew she would miss him deeply, but, as the story is told in the book Behind the Ranges, she sent him away with a willing heart, knowing that her loneliness was for Christ's sake. "I could not pour the ointment on his blessed feet, as Mary did," she said. "But I gave him my boy."

What a wonderful perspective! Lord, make my heart like this mother's, so that nothing--from the fear of sickness or death to the threat of ostracism from their peers--will hinder my willingness to pray faithfully for my children to proclaim and promote your kingdom.