Praying for our students through the year - day 25 (Y) Yearning

Today we are praying for our children have a yearning for Christ! Yearning is a deep, tender and urgent longing; an appetite or craving. Pray your children will have a yearning to know more about Jesus and the Bible.  Isaiah 26:9 says “My soul yearns for you in the night; my spirit within me earnestly seeks you”. The old hymn More About Jesus describes yearning well: 

“More about Jesus would I know, More of His grace to others show; More of His saving fullness see, More of His love Who died for me. More about Jesus let me learn, More of His holy will discern; Spirit of God, my teacher be, Showing the things of Christ to me...".  

Our lives should be more about Jesus, not about us! Do you yearn to know Him deeper?  Pray you and your family will yearn for a deeper relationship with God. Psalm 42:1-2 says “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God”. We have to crave, thirst, yearn for a relationship with God. Pray your child learns to crave and thirst for this relationship above all others. Pray the Holy Spirit will create a yearning for His Word.  Pray they will become more in love with God than anything else in this world. Pray your whole family will work on developing a yearning for God. Make it a goal to spend more time in prayer and reading His Word. Crave Him today!

Praying for our students through the year - day 24 (X) eXcellence

It is hard for me to believe the 6th week of school is almost over and we are almost to the end of the alphabet on praying for our children.  Today we are praying for eXcellence. There are a few character traits in which each of us should have a desire to excel. Just to mention 23...pray for your child to excel in his or her attitude, boldness, courage, discernment, enthusiasm, friendship, generosity, humility, initiative, joyfulness, knowledge, listening, maturity, being neighbors, obedience, perseverance, being quiet, respectfulness, self-control, thankfulness, understanding, victory, and work ethic! (this was the first 23 prayer topics if you need to go back and review check out my old blog posts) Excellence goes beyond dreams and what we can do and is about what we SHOULD do and how we SHOULD act. We need to also pray for our children to excel in prayer. It is vital for us to learn to communicate with God and teach our children to do the same. When I was a student I remember receiving an "excellence in education" plaque every year; excellence is not about just making a good grade or doing what we are supposed to at that moment, but about sustaining that attitude for a lifetime.

Philippians 3;13-14 states: "Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus".

We need to press on until the end of our time on this earth and pray our children will do the same. Excellence in all we do should be a priority. Excellence demands that we do our very best with the abilities that God has given us. Pray your children will learn to exhibit moral excellence, then there will be evidence that the fruit of the Holy Spirit is growing in their lives.

"Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation." 1 Peter 2:12 NASB

Praying for our students through the year - day 23 (W) Work Ethic

Today pray your child will have a great work ethic. It doesn't matter if we are doing school work, part-time jobs, working to perform a role in a play, be part of a sports team, doing chores, or in a career, God wants each of us to do our best. Teach your children to use their hands and minds to accomplish good things that honor God. Teach them that work is good, but we also need to let our bodies rest and reflect on all God has blessed us with (Exodus 23:12).  

Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. Colossians 3:23-24

Teach your children that hard work and dedication produces positive results. The Bible teaches us to develop solid work ethic and to put our all in what we do.  I once heard "wherever we are, be 100% there". It is easy to try to multitask or be distracted when we are busy however we should be dedicated to what we are doing. God put Adam in the garden to WORK and take care of it (Gen. 2:15). 

Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going. 

Ecclesiastes 9:10

Teach them that all they do has a purpose! Laziness can be a problem and become habitual. Model the example of joyfully working in front of your children and others. Teach them to not be idle; that there are consequences to being lazy.  (2 Thess 3:10). Pray your child will find joy in working, as working for the Lord. Pray they will not want to be lazy or idle. Pray they will put forth their BEST effort in ALL they do. Pray they will have a desire to work hard and want to succeed at achieving their goals. Give them praise to encourage them as you seem them working hard and accomplishing milestones, but remember it is ok to let them fail. Lessons can be learned from failure. Failure may motivate them to work harder next time. Pray for a good work ethic today! 

Praying for our students through the year - day 22 (V) Victory

Today let's pray for victory for our kids. How do we define victory? I am not talking about winning at everything they do, or being first. True victory is loving God with all of our hearts, souls and minds and loving our neighbors as ourselves (Matthew 22:36-38).

1 John 5:4 says: For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.

We have victory over our sin when we are living for Christ. Pray that our children learn to live for Christ every day. Pray they will have victory over their sins. Pray they will overcome this world and all that allures them away from God. Pray they will choose right over wrong. Pray God will provide them with the strength and integrity needed to overcome all that hinders them from having victory. Pray that will not be tricked by the traps and snares of the enemy as he tries to enslave them to sin. Pray that they will understand this victory cannot be accomplished on their own, but through the power of the Holy Spirit living in them, through following His direction daily! Pray they will have VICTORY in JESUS today!

Praying for our students through the year - day 21 (U) Understanding

Wow! The 1st half of the first 9 weeks of school has ended. The 6th week of school is beginning. Today we are praying for understanding, Understanding has two parts: 1) the ability to learn, comprehend, and make decisions and 2) being sympathetic, tolerant, or wise towards people. The first is about gaining knowledge  - whether it be of the Bible, or at school, or work. We should ask God to help us understand; especially what His Word says and how to apply it to our lives. The second part of understanding is how we treat others; we should show them Christ-like love and try to see their point of view. We should try to relate to what is going on in their lives; having compassion.  

Proverbs 18:2 says “A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion”. 

Don’t be selfish about having it “your way”, listen to others and be kind. Godly Character is more important that getting it “our way” all the time. 

Proverbs 2:1-6 says “My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding”. 

Wisdom and understanding come from God, however to obtain it, we must seek it. His Word reveals it, but we must read His Word if we want to gain it. True understanding is of God and we can’t create it by our own efforts. We have to seek it, want it, and search for it. It doesn’t come easy, nothing we treasure does. Once we obtain it, we must always try to use it and be understanding toward others. Thank our Heavenly Father for making understanding and wisdom available to us. Pray He will help each of us and our children study more and earnestly seek understanding. Also, pray we will all grow in understanding toward others and show compassion and mercy to all. 

Praying for our students through the year - day 20 (T) Thankfulness

Thankfulness is a prominent Bible theme. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 says, "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." Did you catch that? Give thanks in all circumstances. We should have thankful hearts. Thankfulness should be a way of life for us, naturally flowing from our hearts and mouths. Pray for your children to be thankful today. Psalm 136:1 says "Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever." In this verse,  God's Word gives us 2 reasons to be thankful; because He is GOOD and His Love endures FOREVER! Help your children learn what it means to be thankful in all situations; when we are sad or have bad days, when we are stressed, busy, and when life is going good. When our boys were younger I would try to ask them: "What was the best part of your day today? What was the worst part? What was the funniest thing that happened today? Was there anything bad, sad or that upset you today?" This gets your children talking more than asking "How was your day?" Also, once they answer, you can teach them to be thankful during those times. We do prayer requests and praise items at church, it makes me sad at how quickly we can make a list of problems, yet it is so difficult to think of reasons to be thankful. I ask in Children's Church sometimes, "tell me something good that happened today?"... let us all learn to give thanks with grateful hearts! Let’s pray for our children to learn to be more thankful today; we are so blessed and should never take it for granted. 

I can't help but think of the Thankfulness song from Madame Blueberry - Veggie Tales:

I thank God for this day,
For the sun in the sky,
For my mom and my dad,
For my piece of apple pie!
For our home on the ground,
For His love that's all around,
That's why I say thanks every day!
Because a thankful heart is a happy heart!
I'm glad for what I have,
That's an easy way to start!
For the love that He shares,
'Cause He listens to my prayers,
That's why I say thanks every day! 

Praying for our students through the year - day 19 (S) Self-Control

Today we are praying for Self-control for our children! In order to have self-control we must have

self-discipline; the power or ability to control our thoughts, actions, feelings and desires with the intention of improving self. Self-control is restraint exercised over one's own impulses, emotions, or desires. Self-control is self-discipline in action.

Galatians 5:22-23 says “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”

Self-control comes from the Holy Spirit living in us. 

1 Corinthians 9:24-27 says “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified”. 

It is hard without the help of the Holy Spirit to keep our keep our emotions in check. It can be difficult to not lose our temper or to spout off at the mouth. It can be hard to not go too far in relationships and to save ourselves for marriage. It can be difficult to not overeat or be a slob. It is hard to make it a priority to spend quality time in God’s Word, or attend church faithfully to worship and share with others…however, all of these things are possible when we let the Holy Spirit control our thoughts, words and actions. With His help, self-control is obtainable. Teach your children to talk to God; help them learn to tell God what areas they are struggling with and how to look in His Word for answers to help them overcome. He will guide us when we sincerely ask Him. Pray your children will learn self-control in their life. Pray they will learn to control whatever battle rages inside of them. Pray they will have strength to stand strong and lean on God so that their emotions, impulses and desires don't run out of control. Pray they will be a positive example of God's Love to everyone around them. Pray they will learn to think before they speak or act. Teach them to internally reflect and ponder these questions before they take action:  "Is what I am about to do or say pleasing to God? Is it helpful or hurtful to others and to my testimony"? Encourage them to live out loud for Christ!