21 Days of Prayer for Our Sons Link-Up

I've been writing about each day of the 21 Days of Prayer for Our Sons, but for this link-up I'm just going to write about the event & prayer in general.


I love prayer. It's the most incredible gift. Think about it. The God who created all promises to hear us and answer according to what He, who knows everything, says is best for us. There's no man-made god who promises that. Sure, sometimes our God says, "no," but that's because he knows that there's something better down the road.

I prayed for another child through years of secondary infertility and God always said "no." Finally God said (or so I imagine) "OK, she's ready for the child I have planned for her. The child that will help her learn to fight instead of letting other people dictate her life." ;)


I've learned a lot about prayer over the years. The most important thing is that prayer is not a way to boss God around. He's not our cosmic butler. And when we pray we can't just tell Him what to do. We must submit as even Christ submitted and said "Nevertheless, not my will but thine be done.". That's a painful prayer to pray. I've prayed it under daunting circumstances and can definitely see how Christ could have sweat blood.


I've learned, too, that prayer is powerful to change...me. I've been so pleasantly surprised over the past year. What actually started as a prayer for my son, has radically changed me. What a blessing it's been to see my own heart of stone softened by God's hand. All because I started praying for someone else. Now I can pray for others more readily. It has started me down the path of healing from past hurts. It has made me able to, while not condoning the sins of those who hurt me or my children, forgive them and realize that the pain they inflicted was born of their need of a Savior and a need to submit themselves to Him entirely.


So, as we moms pray through this month, may we find our own selves radically altered at the end. Ready to live completely different lives in the service of our God and King. Then our boys will be able to see how a changed heart, obedience, and submission to God can affect them for good.

Obedience and Submission to Authority--Days 2 & 3 of 21 Days of Prayer for our Sons

I did actually write something up yesterday but I didn't like it much and was too tired to change it by the time we got home from AWANA. Since obedience and submission both stick in the craw of a red-neck, I guess I'm not too far off putting them together in one post. :)

In all seriousness, we red-necks just simply cannot stand to be told what to do. We don't like the government doing it, and, unfortunately, we don't even like God doing it. Like many people, we ignore the parts of scripture that bother us and enjoy the parts we feel benefit us.

After spending most of my life doing that, God has finally brought me to a place where I realize that not only is it wrong, it's extremely detrimental to my children. Over the past year we have actually been learning to submit together. It hasn't been easy, but lately it's been better. 

It's amazing to watch God work and change people's hearts, especially when those hearts belong to your children. They aren't perfect, and I remind them that I know they never will be, but that God forgives them. 

Our children do need to learn to obey and submit or they will have a hard time in life (trust me, btdt). Sometimes we get so caught up in making them perfect in the eyes of those watching, family members, church leaders, teachers, etc., that we forget that, while the reality is that people will judge us based on our children's actions, we should not so much worry about what others think, but whether our children are truly submitting and being obedient, or just doing it because they have to. We don't want them to be sitting down on the outside while standing on the inside.

Yesterday one of the moms at the 21 Days of Prayer high school FB page talked about how she had made bad decisions when she went off on her own because her parents weren't there to lecture her. I really liked her idea that we need to help our children understand that their disobedience is not so much against us as it is against God. I can really see how this can help prepare them to make right choices on their own when Mom & Dad aren't around. Our children's decisions in life should be based, not on experience, but what God's word tells us.

I think the best part of this advice is that it is a constant reminder to me as a parent that these children are not mine. God has entrusted them to me to raise for Him. Like Hannah with little Samuel, one day I will have to release them and go home where all I can do then is pray for them. Wouldn't it be better to start that now than wait until the time comes? Then I can more than "hope" they will do OK, I can trust them to do the right thing. I think I might sleep better at night. :)

Heart Change--Day 1 of 21 Days of Prayer for Our Sons

While I don't know if I'll blog every day, I had a few seconds and hadn't blogged in a while so...:D

When I read through the list of things we'd be praying for each day, this, more than any of the others, stuck with me. Obviously, none of the others matter, or can happen at all, without this, but that's not the reason. The reason is, well, to be honest, I wasn't raised that way. I love my grandparents very much, and do not doubt their salvation, but to them being a Christian was sometimes akin to being an American, it was just something you were. Being a Christian wasn't something that radically altered your day-to-day living. It didn't really change the way you looked at the world (that was politics) and it didn't change the way you treated others (that was rearing, and we were rednecks).

After I was saved, or returned to the Lord, or whatever you want to call what happened to me when I was 19, I knew there was more. I saw it in the people at my church. I heard it from the pulpit. There was something else. Unfortunately, like an addict, I stayed around the people who had influenced me prior to this point and their version of Christianity was similar to my grandparents', so I never truly kicked my bad habits.

This continued into my marriage, into my parenting, and right on down the line until about 3 years ago. It was then that things began to happen that forced me to see that I was in great error. After that I began to pray for change. And, not surprisingly, change happened.

As I wrote earlier, this experience is why I signed up for this round of the 21 Days of Prayer for Our Sons. I have seen God work amazing things and I know that as we pray through this month for our sons even more amazing things will happen. We serve a great and powerful God who can even change the heart of a stubborn, willful, etc., woman after 40 years. If He can do that, He can do it in my kids too. :)

Change the world. Pray for your sons.

Well, I wasn't going to blog about this until it actually started, or ended, whenever I had something interesting to say about it. But I learned that if I blog about it today, there's an extra free book in it for me to apparently give away? As we've already established, I will do anything for a free book, even if it's for someone else, it seems.

I first learned of the 21 Days of Prayer for Sons challenge (or whatever it might have been called over the years) a few years ago...or maybe a year ago. It's hard for me to remember stuff that I don't do all the time, maybe that's why it's taken me so long to be ready to join. I had wanted to join in before but, honestly, I probably forgot the start date or something. :D

Over the last year, while my memory hasn't been getting much better, my focus has. I know, that sounds contradictory, but that's me, a bundle of contradictions. :) I started participating in Good Morning Girls last summer and that has really helped me regain some focus. This year I joined up in our new church's 40 Days of Prayer to End Human Trafficking. And I've been using a book called Seek God for the City 2012 to go along with it. (The book is also something I picked up at church.)

So a few weeks (days? who can remember? :D) ago when I saw there was another 21 Days in the plans, this time from May 1-21, I knew I was finally ready. I'm so "with it" now that I've got it on my iPhone calendar. :)

The other reason I know I'm ready is I believe it. Not it, I'm ready, it, prayer. I was going to blog about this later but since we're on the subject of prayer right now I'll go ahead and say it...

About 2 years ago...or, really, who knows...as we've seen, I'm not good at remembering specific dates and length of time...I started praying a simple prayer with my boys each morning during Bible. It went something like this: "Lord, Help us to honor and glorify You in all we think, do, and say." Why did I start praying that? Coz I wanted something better for my boys than what was going on right then. And I knew that was what I wanted. It's hard to explain the whole situation without turning it into a novel so suffice to say I knew that we were not growing spiritually and I had no idea why. I knew it had to do with Bible reading and prayer, but I didn't know what. So this prayer "came to me." And I've prayed it every day since.

Slowly God started answering the prayer. I will be honest, I didn't like the way He answered it. In hindsight, He took me in for Cancer surgery before I knew I had Cancer. He cut things out of my life in such a painful way that I could no longer tell up from down. I was confused and in some of the greatest emotional pain I'd ever been in my life. But He just kept cutting. It took me over a year to see it for what it was, and, until yesterday, I didn't see the catalyst.

Yesterday, I was talking with the Teenager about prayer and slowly I recalled this same prayer I have prayed every morning for 2 years, and I saw that God had truly answered it. Not only had He cut out the things that were hindering our spiritual growth, He moved us to a place where we *can* grow.

Moral of the story, The Lord hears our pleas, the Lord accepts our prayers. (Ps 6:9). Not because we are some totally on-fire Christians who have it all together. I can assure you, I didn't. I was a wreck, and, quite frankly, an embarrassment to the cause of Christ. He accepts them because we are His. If we are good parents (and I know there are some bad ones which is why I qualify it) will we ignore our child's plea for water just because he's been getting into trouble all day? God doesn't either. If we are His (and we don't know if we are until we ask) He will answer. It may not be what we like, it may hurt like crazy, but it will be an answer, and it will be pretty darned awesome.

If you had told me a year ago I'd be where I am, I would have laughed. If you ask me where I'll be a year from now, I'll admit I have no idea, but it will be a good place no matter what because now I know God really is in control of everything AND He really does answer the prayers of His people, even the weak and foolish ones like me.