A Prayer for Your Children and Grandchildren … If You Dare
“Why do you honor your sons more than me by fattening yourselves on the choice parts of every offering made by my people Israel?’”
1 Samuel 2:29 (NIV)
It’s natural for parents to pray for their children to be safe. When my kids got hurt, I hurt. When they suffered, I suffered also. And I knew from experience that the world can be dangerous.
I Used to Pray for Safety
My seminary professor told a story of how he changed his prayers for his daughters when they were growing up. “I used to pray for their safety and their protection,” he said. “Then one day I realized what God would have me pray is for His will to be done in their lives. So I changed and started praying that. And I added ‘And give them the grace to accept what You have planned.’”
His story made me think that perhaps many of us parents are missing something when we pray for our children. Is safety the most important request we can ask of God?
A story in the Bible helped me understand why praying for God’s will matters so much. This scene in the Old Testament also caused me to fear offending God and helped me see the seriousness of tolerating sin in our children. It’s the story of Eli and his two sons.
Do We Honor Our Children Above God?
1 Samuel 2 records that these two young men were “worthless men” who “did not know the Lord.” Their sin was great, they “treated the offering of the Lord with contempt” and they “would not listen to the voice of their father.” Soon after these pronouncements God spoke to Eli and asked, “Why then do you scorn my sacrifices and my offerings that I commanded for my dwelling, and honor your sons above me …?” Though Eli disapproved of his sons’ behavior, his words to his boys were empty and without conviction because he himself was guilty of the same excesses.
We parents must ask the same question of ourselves and our posture toward our children. Do we honor our children above God and His Word?
Here is my challenge, if you dare. Yes, pray for the safety of your children … pray, for example, that your teenagers are careful and stay safe every time they get behind the wheel. But I hope you will also ask God that His will and purposes and plans will be fulfilled in these children made in His image for purposes and glory we can’t imagine.
Dangerous Prayer
Why do I say “if you dare”? Somehow the enemy of our souls, Satan, has deceived us into believing that asking God for His will to be done is a dangerous prayer. We believe turning our kids over to God is inviting His wrath and a disaster of some kind. We fear God will treat our kids like He treated Job in the Old Testament. But we forget God loved Job and in the process of his temporary suffering and loss, Job saw God! And his life after his trials was better in every way than before.
I bet if Job could be interviewed today and we asked if the hardships were worth it, he would reply “Yes!” a thousand times. Having been through many trials, I heartily agree. What I’ve learned and seen in God makes every minute of the pain and losses worth it.
Dare we rob our children of the unspeakable privilege of seeing and experiencing an encounter with God?
Someone once said, “The safest place to be is in the center of God’s will.” I believe that’s true.
If you belong to the King, your highest goal for your children is that they, too, would belong to Him and choose on their own to follow Him.
I hope you will join me and begin to pray this prayer for your children and grandchildren regularly:
My Father in heaven,
dearest Father of my child
who You love more than I possibly can,
may Your will be done in my child’s life.
May Your purposes be fulfilled,
for in Your plan will my child find deepest fulfillment
and meaning in life.
And grant my child the grace to accept Your good will.
Help him to trust You
and be willing to follow You even when the way seems hard.
Thank You that You are a good Father
who delights to give good gifts to Your children,
to those who believe in You above all else.
May Your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.
Amen.
In His Word
Read 1 Samuel 2. What do you notice about what happens to Eli’s sons?
In Your Life
Pray the prayer above today. How will you plan to change the way you pray over your children and grandchildren from now on?
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Author Bio
Barbara Rainey, wife of 42 years. Empty nester to 6 kids and 22 grandkids. Cofounder of FamilyLife. Creator of Ever Thine Home. Author & artist. Inspires women to see mundane moments as sacred and meaningful. Still in awe at being loved by God. If you want to hear more from Barbara on how to keep Christ as the center of your life and home subscribe for free and get her Monday blogs and Thursday podcasts: barbararainey.substack.com