Praying For Our Teenagers

So many things cross my mind in a day... in my wonderful job of being a mother. I have children at many various stages in life and love that. There is more though to pray about I think as they get older and are in the teen years. I think it is mostly because I realize my time with them at home is lessening. (I have mixed emotions about that.) I am around teenagers and pre-teens a lot and I enjoy them a lot. A close friend and I were just commenting to each other this week how it is so nice to see our daughters becoming young women and how nice the mother/daughter relationship becomes when you can start talking more as adults and you have more "grown-up" conversations during the days at home, etc.

This morning I ran across this information in a newsletter I get and printed it out. I also wanted to share it with you. It is a great list to use when praying for our children... and their friends.

Praying for Our Teens
What to Pray for Your Teens :
* A heart which personally and fully understands, embraces, and shares the gospel
* Reverence for God, and a passion to please and serve him
* Continual filling, anointing, and equipping of the Holy Spirit
* God-honoring family relationships filled with respect, affection, compassion and cooperation
* Protection and strength to face moral temptation and cultural pressure
* Repentance and humble acceptance of correction
* Guidance for decisions about high school options, as well as future college and career
* Maturity to make the right decisions for the right reasons
* Wise priorities for using time
* Preparation for marriage and parenting – pray for their future spouses, too!
* Ask your teens how you can pray for them!

What to Pray for Ourselves as Parents
* Unity in and commitment to your marriage – or if you are a single parent, basic harmony with the other parent (and any step-parent) in raising your teen
* A warm and trusting relationship with your teen, characterized by healthy and open communication
* Forgiveness and release from bitterness, whether conscious or subconscious
* Confidence and boldness to lead, even when a teen attempts to manipulate or rebel
* Wisdom to know which battles are worth fighting, and when to let your teen make decisions (and face the consequences)
* That you will be an example of godliness, wisdom, grace, and good humor

(List taken from The Hope Chest e-magazine written by Virginia Knowles)

“…We have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. May you be strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints.” Colossians 1:9-12

Protection and Friendship

Father, please guard my children by day and night,

Keep them in Your care.

Raise up for them friends who know You and love You;

bring them into their lives to reinforce Your ways and values that they may seek them out.

Prepare them to be a trusted friend to others just as You are to us.

~ Lori B. Whitman~