Sunday, July 3, 2011

Pray For The Children Around You

So we have continued praying for you ever since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you a complete understanding of what he wants to do in your lives, and we ask him to make you wise with spiritual wisdom. -- Colossians 1:9

I started praying for him before he was ever born. I asked God to keep he and his mother safe and healthy. And at his birth, I asked God to surround that tiny little boy with His Presence so that he would always know His Lord and Savior.

It gladdened my heart as he grew to see him grab his “Jesus book” and turn the pages to “read” it each night. A little boy learning about a God who loves him so much that He sent His son to die for him. One day, I pray, he’ll fully understand that. For now he’s a big boy of five who can say the Lord’s Prayer and blesses us with his sweet prayers.

I continue to pray for him and the little brother who joined him a little over two years ago. I pray for health and safety and happiness. But mostly I pray that these little boys will always know the love of their Heavenly Father. I want the Holy Spirit to guide their lives and make them grow wise.

Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and you will continually do good, kind things for others. All the while, you will learn to know God better and better.

-- Colossians 9:10

I have an older nephew who has grown so tall I must stand on the tips of my toes to reach high enough to hug his neck. He wears a gold cross around his neck. I’m thrilled by that. But mostly I am overwhelmed by his heart. I see the goodness in this almost-adult young man. He is quick to help, eager to lend, willing to share. He lives his life in a way that reflects Jesus to the world. It fills me joy.

Children are the greatest gifts God could ever bestow on anyone. If you are blessed to have children in your life -- whether your own or someone else’s -- pray for them and tell them again and again how much God loves them. Urge them toward a life filled with Jesus moments reflecting out to the world.