A Mother's Prayer

Well, life has changed a bit for us again... Jeremy now has his drivers license! So please say a few extra prayers for him & us!! Seriously, he is a good driver, but a few extra prayers never hurt!

This new phase in his life has caused me to reflect on the different stages of my prayer life as a mom. I have always prayed for my children, even before they were born, and have continued to pray for them daily ever since. As I'm sure many of you do as well. But in looking back over the years, I can see how those prayers change through the different phases of their lives.

You begin praying that they will grow and develop and everything physical will be normal. Then as they grow you begin praying for the new things they are learning. And sometimes praying more for yourself as they are learning all these new things!! You pray them through those early years and you feel like things are going pretty well. Then all of sudden there are boyfriends or girlfriends in the picture and you realize there are even more things to pray about!

I have always prayed for my children's spouses and the children they will some day have since they were very young. I learned that from a very Godly preacher's wife I know! And what a blessing that has been in my life! Especially as I have watched how the prayers for her own children all through these years have impacted their lives and helped to shape the Godly Christians they have become. It gives you great hope in what God has planned for your children when you are watching someone else’s prayers for their children unfold. "Jeremiah 29:11."

Then the driving phase hits and your prayers change again. Not only for safety, but for yourself as you realize it's time to slowly start letting go. Not completely letting go, but realizing that your time left with them is growing shorter. God has a way of helping us through that letting go process little by little. I believe that driving is really the first big step in that. It lets you know your children are growing up and that if you have diligently been praying for them, it's time to at least 'begin' to let God take control of your worries over them.

Because the next step is off to college! And boy, do you ever have to start letting go at that point! You have to trust in God that through all the mistakes you've made through the years with your children, and believe me, there are plenty of them, that you have given them a strong enough foundation to help them make Godly decisions in their own lives.

As a mom, that letting go is a hard thing to do. But I know that as I begin to slowly let go with Jeremy, and have been letting go even further with Ashley, that God is right there to pick them up and carry them for me. I know that he will never let them fall without being right there to pick them up. And for a mom letting go... that is the greatest comfort imaginable.

"30 Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; 31 but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. Isaiah 40:30,31 ESV "

I will never stop praying for my children, their future spouses and even the children they will some day have in the future. But I know that even though I have to begin letting go as their earthy parent, there Heavenly Father is holding on tighter than ever! What a blessing!

I pray that my children soar with God! And that is my prayer for your children as well.