This week, I had the pleasure of starting a brand new live streaming series on Periscope for Christian parents raising kids with special needs. This week we discussed how to pray for your kids:
First I reviewed the top 3 ways of praying that we might fall into. When you talk to God, are you one of these?
- The Deal Maker
- The Beggar
- The Mom with False Confidence
I’m sure there are more ways to pray that are more self-centered than God-centered, but we are all on our knees for the same reasons:
We love our kids
We worry for their future
We want to protect them from pain
Because we are praying from our hearts, it’s difficult to see that our way of prayer might be selfish. Our ultimate goal on this planet is to give glory to God.
And the ultimate thing to teach our kids is not life skills, or academic success, or proper behavior, or socialization. Those are all very good and necessary goals where we can help our kids improve with intervention, but none of them are the heart of God’s purpose.
God wants us to teach our kids about Him. He wants us to let go of the idea that they are “disabled” (or “differently abled” or “challenged” or whatever your word is). What our kids can be – ALL of them, no matter where they are developmentally – is Kingdom Enabled. That is, you can teach your child about the glory of God.
And that, my fellow Christian parents, should be our true goal when we raise kids.
But how do we achieve that? We start with the basics that we’re already doing – prayer. There is, however, a format for prayer that is organized, simple and pleasing to God.
How to Pray for Your Kids
You may have heard of this memonic device before: “ACTS.” It comes from the Lord’s prayer (Luke 11:1-4), aka, “The Our Father,” which Jesus taught his disciples when they asked how to pray. Now, it’s not line by line, but this order helps me effectively pray.
A: Adoration – Praise the Lord first. I don’t even get into anything until I make sure I put Him FIRST.
C: Confession – Apologize for your sins, to God and the wounded party. (Parents, I know this is hard! Watch the video to hear the amazing effect of apologizing to my nonverbal daughter.) This is next because you want to clear that spot on your soul so God can clearly see and hear you.
T: Thanksgiving – Show God how grateful you are for the abundance He has given you. Salvation is abundance enough, right? We remember daily all He has provided for us. This is just polite, right? Don’t we show appreciation first in our relationships, before we ask for something?
S: Supplication – NOW is the time to ask what you need. Go ahead, lay it out, but don’t be one of those prayers up above.
Check out the video for more detail on how I handle all these, so I can pray in an clear and orderly way for my children.
