As our kids grow up we teach them to say their prayers at night and many times we will teach the classic “now I lay me down to sleep….”
No matter your religious affiliation many people believe in a GOD. I the Christian world prayer is important because to us this is communication with GOD.
With anything it is important to teach our kids tools of life and ways to live.
As our kids grew up we taught them a prayer that I feel embodies what they should strive to be like from a biblical perspective.
Before you start telling me I don’t care about my child’s this or my child’s that. Remember this is a framework for how my kids pray. We pray for so many other things but these 3 things are attributes I want my children to embody as they grow up.
We teach them first of all to be thankful and Thank God for all he has blessed up with .
Then we ask GOD to help them to become 3 things, and all of them have biblical examples to go by.
1. Strong like Samson. “Help me to be Strong like Samson”
There is a line in a movie that says life will chew you up and spit you out if you let it. In Life we have to be strong. We have to be strong in 3 ways.
- Physically- I think we need to teach our kids to be physically strong. They have to be able to do physical things in life. TO lift this or move that. To be able to pick up their bike when they have a wreck, to pick up their sister if mommy and daddy cant make it there etc. Physical Strength in life is paramount on so many levels and I could write a small book about that but I will leave that for another time.
- Mental toughness is one of the #1 keys to being successful in life. We have to be able to handle all that life is going to throw at us. How do we respond to failure? How do we respond to success? How do we respond when we want to quit when things are not going as planned? When the going gets tough we have to have it between the ears before we have it in our muscles.
- Being strong in our faith and having something to rely on that is bigger than us is HUGE. There are going to be times in life when your not sure you can make it. If you trust in others they will let you down. We have to be strong spiritually to know that God has everything in control.
Why Samson?
Samson has the reputation of being the strongest person in the Bible . An angel of the Lord appeared to Samson's mom and said you are going to have a blessed child. The Bible says that when the child was born “he grew and the Lord blessed him” (Judges 13:24) The Bible then goes on to tell the story of how Samson was walking through the vineyards and came upon a Lion. “The spirit of the Lord came upon him and he tore the lion apart with his bare hands.” (Judges 14:6)
The angel of the Lord told his mom this power would grow as the boy got older and his hair got longer. There are numerous stories in Judges 13-16 of how Samson showed his strength from killing 30 men to collapsing 2 pillars that help up and entire building.
Do I want my kids to be exactly like Samson….No he made mistakes just like all of use do. I do want them to embody the physical and mentally strengths the Lord blessed him with though.
2. Tough like Benaiah
There is not a ton about Benaiah in the Bible. I first learned about Benaiah from the Mark Batterson Book “In a pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day”
Toughness. It will get you through almost anything.
Benaiah exuded toughness. When many people think of Tough they think of the physical. This is true, but what most do not realize is the mental toughness it takes to launch headlong into what ever venture you are facing that is physically taxing.
But why Benaiah?
What makes him so tough?
- He is faced with an Egyptian Giant and kills him.
This is cool but we have heard this story before (David and Goliath) but its how Beniah did it that makes him stand out. The Egyptian had an enormous spear (weaver’s beam–sized), and Benaiah has nothing but a little club. But no worries: Benaiah just snatches the spear from the Egyptian and kills him with that instead.
That’s hardcore.
- Killed a Lion
Killing a lion itself is super crazy, but the Bible tells us (2 Samuel 23:20) He also went down and killed a lion in the middle of a pit on a snowy day.
This is not a deal where he was in a pasture and a lion came up to him. No, out of his own free will Beniah went down into the pit and killed a lion. Talk about mental toughness. Lets go one more. It was snowing. I don’t want to go get the mail when its snowing, much less go fight a lion.
I want to teach my kids that toughness will get us through many things in life and how we have to be tough physically and mentally to be great.
3. Wise like Solomon
Solomon was said the be the wisest man in the world. He wrote, he sang, and he taught.
But what makes him so wise? And Why do I want my children to be like him?
In 1 Kings Chapter 3 God comes to Solomon and asks him. “Solomon, ask for anything you want, and I will give it to you.”
WOW. That’s Strong !
What would you say? Here is what he said.
“Please make me wise and teach me the difference between right and wrong. Then I will know how to rule your people. If you don’t, there is no way I could rule this great nation of yours.”
Say what !!!
This is why I want my kids to be wise like Solomon. Because he had enough in him to know that if he had wisdom all the other stuff would follow.
He gave up the instant gratification for the delayed riches and honor.
It gives me chills to think I am praying and my kids are praying this into their lives every day.
Prayer is communication with God. When we pour out our hearts he listens. Childlike faith is what causes God to listen. Speak life into your child on a daily basis
In all of these prayers we explain to our kids why these people are the way they are and why they should want to mimic these traits.
So it is not just a rote prayer they speak daily. Explain why they want to be like these 3 giants of faith.
Love to hear what you pray with and over your kids every day.
Leave it in the comments below.
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