I’m sure you pray for your kids. We understand pretty intuitively that our kids are vulnerable people in a dangerous world and that parenting them well is an overwhelming task. Under those circumstances, it’s natural for a believer to pray!
Jesus gave his followers a pattern we can use for praying. And so I thought it might be helpful to consider the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6 as a pattern for prayer for our kids too! Below are the phrases of the Lord’s Prayer with some ideas to get you started:
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
- God is a good, good Father. If you think you love your kids–only imagine how a perfect Father must love them! Ask for help in trusting His perfect, divine parenthood of your kids.
- Consider some of the names of God and what that name means in your child’s life. For example, in Genesis 6:13, God is called El Roi, the God who sees. Maybe your child feels overlooked at home or school. Pray your child will know the Lord always sees Him.
- Also pray that your child will come to a saving faith in Christ so that he or she will uphold the name of God as holy their entire lives.
Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
- We all long for the perfect safety and peace and justice of God’s perfect reign. This is a great time to pray with all the saints of history, “Come quickly, Lord Jesus.”
- Ask for the faith to be able to trust God’s will in the life of your child.
- Ask God to be actively involved in your child’s soul and circumstances to experience God’s grace, love, mercy, wisdom, and more.
Give us this day our daily bread,
- Your child has needs and concerns. God cares about these things and loves to provide for us.
- Maybe your child has health concerns, friend concerns, school or sport concerns. Maybe your child needs extra support in the classroom, maybe your child has some medical testing coming up, maybe your child needs a friend. Maybe you don’t know where the finances will come for college. Or your child is working hard to achieve a goal. It’s okay to ask for good gifts for your child!
- Trust the Lord to provide for your needs as well!
and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
- Pray ultimately that your child will understand their great need for a savior’s forgiveness.
- Pray also that your child will become a person of grace and forgiveness of others.
- Ask that the Lord helps you create a culture in your home where grace is freely given and received.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
- Dangers within and dangers without. These are the things we fear the most for our kids.
- God already knows your greatest fears. You can tell him what you’re worried about. You can ask him to protect your child from catastrophes, criminals, and just the categorically foolish decisions that can change everything in the blink of an eye.
- This is also a great place to entrust the Lord to do this job and to ask for His wisdom and help to lay down some of the grasping, controlling, manipulative behaviors that can become unhealthy and ultimately drive a wedge in your relationship long-term.
As you conclude your prayer, remember that God is supremely loving and supremely strong. He can be trusted with your child and you can say your “Amen” with great security and peace.
“…I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to guard what has been entrusted to me until that day.” (2 Timothy 1:12).