Father God thank you for helping my daughter counteract todays culture, and live the life You want for her. The culture my daughter must face today is often hostile to Your values. Too many girls are simply sucked into the culture, losing their virtue in the process. Prepare her for battle. Because of how You blessed me, help her to recognize the great power I have as her mother to influence her in a Godly way.
I am committed to model a life of faith in action for her, and regularly discuss biblical principles with her. Lord send your angels encamped about her to monitor her outside influences. Help me to set safe boundaries with her selection of friends, music, and media access. Give her discernment to eliminate negative influences in her life. Build a strong peer group of Godly friends all around her. Help her choose courage over conformity. Help me to teach my daughter how to be in the world without being of the world. Help her understand how to be transformed by the Your Spirit and have a renewed mind. Let me demonstrate in my own life as a single mother how she should consistently follow Your Word. Yahweh build her esteem so that she may know how to define her true self-worth. Let her know that her worth doesnt equal what she looks like. Lord I know you are more concerned with her inner heart than her outward appearance.
Father I thank You that You care more about who she is, than her accomplishments. It matters what You think, not what others think of her. El, Elohim refute from her mind-set the myths about sex, with the truth of Your word. Lord help her to realize that I should be her primary source of information about sexuality, and that I will strive to provide her with lots of accurate Godly information. Help my daughter see that Your call for sexual purity is not exclusively meant for sexual intercourse, but for all sexual activity. As she makes a personal pledge to You to save sex for marriage, she will seek out friends who have also made such pledges themselves. Give her wisdom to know that You created sex as something beautiful to be enjoyed in the confines of marriage, and that if the gift is misused, it can have devastating physical, emotional, and spiritual consequences. Let her make wise choices to dress modestly. Help me to explain to my daughter why dressing modestly is an important way to honor You with the body You have given her. God give her the confidence she needs to refrain from seeking attention in the wrong way, by not dressing immodestly to flaunt her body and gain approval from others. We thank You for Your abundant favor and answered prayer, in Your son Jesus name. Amen.
www.praywithme.com
“‘… so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.'” Isaiah 55:11 (ESV)
There is something I’ve come to realize I need to guard against as a mom. I sometimes want to be God in my kids’ lives.
I want to write their stories.
I want to set the course for their futures.
I want to determine what’s best for them.
I want to prevent them from ever being hurt.
I want to be their provider and protector.
And I want to be the one to set anyone straight who messes with my kids.
Can you relate on any level? I think most moms can. We love these people God has entrusted to us more than we ever knew possible. And despite all the infant-stage sleepless nights, toddler tantrums, tween eye rolling, and the teen decisions that break our hearts slap in two … they are ours. To love. To lead. To launch.
And we want to make it all good.
But then things happen so beyond our control we eventually have to face the reality that we aren’t God. And we can’t operate as if we are.
So what do we do with that gap where our mommy capabilities end and trusting God begins? Where my kids are concerned, I want to trust God with everything beyond my control. But it’s so scary. It feels so risky.
And scary and risky are two words we moms don’t want as part of our kids’ lives.
So, how do we deepen our trust in God? How do we make peace with the limits of what we can and cannot protect our children from? What do we do with the risky and scary feelings that can make a mom lose sleep at best and feel crazed with fear at worst?
We must fill that gap with the only thing that bridges the space between our limitations and our trust in God: prayer.
I know, I know. That answer can sound like such a cliché Christian answer. Typical. Too hyper-spiritual. Not the answer we want sometimes.
But prayer is the only possibility with real possibility.
Yesterday, my friend Brooke McGlothlin wrote a devotion about scriptural prayers for boys (see related resources listed below). It inspired me to write some specific scriptural prayers for our girls.
Here are five powerful prayers to help you fight for the heart of your daughter:
1. Let her learn early in life that to obey You, God, is the best way to the life her heart truly desires (1 Samuel 15:22).
2. May she find comfort in Your ability, God, to reach her, hold her and rescue her (2 Samuel 22:17-18).
3. Let her find confidence in You, God, even when hard times come and she doesn’t know what to do, by keeping her eyes fixed on You (2 Chronicles 20:12).
4. May she keep herself under control and not give full vent to people and situations that anger her (Proverbs 29:11).
5. Let her walk in the security of Your assigned worth to her. Give her a strong work ethic and health to accomplish all her tasks. Give her a heart that desires to extend her hand to those in need. Protect her for the right husband, a man of respect and godly honor. And let her be a woman of joy and laughter whose Christ-centered character is what makes her most beautiful (Proverbs 31).
I’ve prayed these prayers, and I’ve seen amazingly powerful things happen in the lives of my daughters.
I can still fret and worry and want to mess with anyone who messes with my girls.
My girls still make mistakes, cross lines and give the principal reasons to call me.
But where would we be if the power of the One who answers our prayers wasn’t in the mix of our lives?
And what might these prayers be working out for my daughters’ futures that I won’t see for years to come?
Yes, prayer is the only possibility with real possibility. And that brings me to the place where I can finally say … “Hello, my name is Mom. Not God.”
Dear Lord, I know that Your Word does not return void and I’m believing great things for my daughter today. May we both grow in our relationship with You. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
***
Related Resources:
Start praying for your daughter, niece, or your son’s future bride using a free gift for you on Lysa’s blog – a printable PDF with ten scriptural prayers for your daughter! Click here to view those prayers. For five scriptural prayers for your son, click here.
Equip the young woman in your life for her walk with the Lord by gifting her with Lysa’s book, What Happens When Young Women Say Yes to God. Click here to purchase your copy!
Reflect and Respond:
Choose one of the Scriptures mentioned above and write it down on a notecard. Place that notecard where you will see it every day (your bathroom mirror, your desk at work, etc.) and pray the Scripture out loud for the next week. When you pray the Word of God, you pray the will of God!
© 2014 by Lysa TerKeurst. All rights reserved.
proverbs31.org
There is something I’ve come to realize I need to guard against as a mom. I sometimes want to be God in my kids’ lives.
I want to write their stories.
I want to set the courses of their futures.
I want to determine what’s best for them.
I want to prevent them from ever being hurt.
I want to be their provider and protector.
And I want to be the one to set anyone straight who messes with my kids.
Can you relate on any level? I think most moms can. We love these people entrusted to us more than we ever knew possible. And despite all the infant sleepless nights, toddler tantrums, tween eye rolling, and the teen decisions that break our heart slap in two… they are ours. To love. To lead. To launch.
And we want to make it all good.
But then things happen so beyond our control we eventually have to face the reality that we aren’t God. And we can’t operate like we are.
So what do we do with that gap where our mommy capabilities end and trusting God begins? I want to trust God with everything beyond my control with my kids but it’s so scary. It feels so risky.
And scary and risky are two words us moms don’t want as part of our kids’ lives.
So, how do we deepen our trust in God? How do we make peace with the limits of what we can and cannot protect them from? What do we do with the risky and scary feelings that can make a mom lose sleep at best and feel crazed with fear at worst?
We must fill that gap with the only thing that bridges the space between our limitations and our trust in God… prayer.
I know, I know – that can sound like such a cliché Christian answer. Typical. Too hyper-spiritual. Not the answer we want sometimes.
But prayer is the only possibility with real possibility.
Earlier this week my friend, Brooke McGlothlin, wrote an article I posted on Scriptural prayers for boys. Today, I want to post some specific Scriptural prayers for our girls.
I’ve prayed these and I’ve seen amazingly powerful things happen in the lives of my daughters.
I can still fret and worry and want to mess with anyone who messes with my girls.
My girls still make mistakes, and cross lines, and give the principal reasons to call me.
But where would we all be if the power of prayer wasn’t in the mix of our lives?
And what might these prayers be working out for their futures that I won’t see for years to come?
Yes, prayer is the only possibility with real possibility. And that brings me to the place where I can finally say… “Hello, my name is Mom. Not God.”
10 Powerful Prayers to Help You Fight for the Heart of Your Daughter:
1. Give my daughter a deep desire to listen to You, Lord, and pray often, “What message does my Lord have for his servant?” (Joshua 5:14b).
2. Let her learn early in life that to obey You, God, is the best way to the life her heart truly desires, (1 Samuel 15:22).
3. May she find comfort in Your ability, God, to reach her, hold her, and rescue her, (2 Samuel 22:17-18).
4. May she please You, Lord, by desiring, asking for, and utilizing a discerning heart full of wisdom, (1 Kings 3:9-12).
5. Let her find confidence in You, God, even when hard times come and she doesn’t know what to do, by keeping her eyes fixed on You, (2 Chronicles 20:12).
6. Give her a great desire to accept Your word, God, and store up Your commands within her so her ears will turn to Your wisdom, (Proverbs 2:1-2).
7. May she keep herself under control and not give full vent to people and situations that anger her, (Proverbs 29:11).
8. Give her the ability to rise above the traps of people pleasing so she can be kept safe by trusting You, Lord, (Proverbs 29:25).
9. Let her walk in the security of Your assigned worth to her. Give her a strong work ethic and health to accomplish all her tasks. Give her a heart that desires to extend her hand to those in need. Protect her for the right husband, a man of respect and godly honor. And let her be a woman of joy and laughter whose Christ-centered character is what makes her most beautiful, (Proverbs chapter 31).
10. And every time you, Jesus, whisper, “Follow me” she does so with great grace, (Matthew 4:19).
Today, I’m giving five commenting blog friends a copy of the book I wrote with my daughter, What Happens When Young Women Say Yes to God. To enter, leave a comment below.
(For “10 Powerful Prayers to Help You Fight for the Heart of Your Son” click here.)
lysaterkeurst.com
