Some years ago, I wrote a poem about a moment in which God impressed upon my heart a prayer for our grandchildren. You can read the poem here: A Birthday Moment. (It had been a long time since I had read the poem, but I recently found it again "accidentally" while searching my blog for a poem by someone else.) This poem of mine was written about the four of my grandchildren who were present at the time. Now there are quite a few more!
I pray for my grandchildren every day, but recently I've been teaching a ladies' Sunday School class using the Elizabeth George book Breaking the Worry Habit .. Forever. In a recent lesson we covered the topic of worrying about our children and grandchildren. At the end of that lesson we were reminded that there are physical and spiritual battles being waged around our children and grandchildren. Then we were assigned to write out a statement of our resolve to pray for, protect, and guard our children and grandchildren. I chose to write my statement of resolve in the form of a prayer. Here is the prayer I wrote:
"Lord,
"You know the concerns I have for each one of our precious grandchildren. I recognize that they are in Your hands and that You have a purpose and a plan for each one of their lives. You are the One who will do the necessary work in their lives to accomplish Your purpose for each one.
"Yet there are things you would have me to do, as well. Help me to pray for them faithfully, fervently, intelligently, and daily. May I keep Your Word ever before them in every way possible. Help me to know how best to instruct them, and give me the opportunities and the words to do so. Help me and my husband to continue to maintain the standards in our home that will guard them from the world during any time they spend with us.
"I thank You for how You will work and for the wisdom and strength You will give for this task as I am faithful to look to You.
"In Jesus' name,
Amen."
I placed this prayer in the front of my prayer journal so I will pray it on a regular basis. One morning as I was doing so, I thought back to the poem "A Birthday Moment" which, due to my poetry search, was now fresh in my mind again. And do you know what wonderful thing God brought to my mind? He has answered that prayer that I prayed years ago in the light of the birthday candles. Each one of those four children has now asked Jesus to be their personal Savior. What an encouragement to this Grammy's heart to be reminded of that answered prayer! And what an added incentive to keep on praying for our precious grandchildren.
What a beautiful, practical prayer for your grandchildren! I love it!
ReplyDeleteWe don`t have grandchildren yet; our oldest is planning to marry later this year, so I'm hoping it won't be too long before we have a grandbaby! I want to be much more intentional as a grandmother than I was as a mother when my children were young. Thank you for sharing this! Do you mind if I share it on my blog this weekend?
Oh, Susan, thank you for the encouragement! Your comment was a huge blessing to my heart today.
ReplyDeleteOf course I wouldn't mind at all if you want to share this on your blog this weekend, if you think it will be a blessing to others. I would be honored if you shared it!
Mrs. T,
ReplyDeleteI can always see the love you have for your family in each of your posts. I just loved this one though. If only all Grandparents prayed for their children and grandchildren so faithfully. The world would surely be a much better place. :) I am praying already that if someday I am blessed with grandchildren that I will spend lots of time on my knees on their behalf. :) Thanks for being such a good example.
Thank you, Nikki. I am glad you were blessed by the post. I think it's neat that you are already thinking ahead to when you will be a grandmother... and that you want to be a praying one. I liked what Susan said in her comment, that she wanted to be much more intentional as a grandmother than she was as a young mom. That's definitely true of me as well.
ReplyDeleteSo .. you're welcome. Thanks for the sweet, encouraging comments.
I have NO earthly idea HOW I got to your blog however, I was so blessed by the lovely simple prayer you prayed for your grandchildren. I have 5 ages 10, 8, 7, 4 1/2, and 3 1/2. The oldest 3 have invited Jesus into their hearts and I have to believe they were counseled diligently so that they truly understood their decision. We can only continue to pray for our precious grandchildren on a daily basis. Did you ever expect to love even deeper on another level with your grandchildren?? They are truly God's reward for getting older.
ReplyDeleteBlessings
Gmama Jane
Grandmama's Stories
May I borrow your picture with the Scripture in the beginning of your post?? I would appreciate sharing with you and feel free to use anything on my blog.
ReplyDeleteBTW, do you really like the word verification component to your comments? I was asked by my followers to discontinue it and I did since I thought I had already clicked it off. My aging eyes have so much trouble seeing those letters and unless it's a very good blog, I won't bother commenting if they have the word verification on. Just sayin....
Gmama Jane
Hi Gmama Jane,
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for stopping in! I am glad you were blessed by the prayer of my heart for my grandchildren.
However you got here, I am glad that you did and hope that you will come back and browse around in the archives.
Thanks for the suggestion about the word verification. I hadn't thought about how annoying it might be to some people's eyes.
Certainly, you are welcome to use the graphic at the top of this post. I got it from a free Scripture graphics site some years ago and have seldom had occasion to use it.
Stop in again! We are enjoying springlike weather up here in New England this week.
I wanted to come by and say thank you for stopping by at my blog a while back, and when I saw the title for this post, I had to click over. :-) We only have one grandchild so far and we do treasure him. Thanks for this example of prayer!
ReplyDeleteWelcome, Barbara!
ReplyDeleteIt's a blessing to have you visit! I enjoy your blog so much, and feel honored to have you visit here. I'm glad you enjoyed this post. Please stop in here at my kitchen table anytime!