I've prayed more prayers for my boys than I could even count. Sometimes they're a quick, "Oh, God, give Kiddo focus during speech today," or "Heavenly Father, bring peace to Little Brother's heart right now," when he's in the middle of a temper tantrum. Sometimes they are prayers about therapies to start or discontinue, or about good behavior and awesome results at an evaluation or a speech intensive. Sometimes it's a quick "Help them come to know you Father."
I've also prayed desperate prayers. Prayers for Little Brother's life, when at 17 weeks pregnant with him I needed to have my appendix removed pronto and the surgeon said so matter-of-factly, "of course there's a risk you will lose the fetus in surgery." (Side note, I hate that term 'fetus'. It's a baby folks. In this case, my baby. End side note). Hubster and I, family and friends and members of our church prayed and prayed that God would spare us both. And obviously, He did. I call Little Brother "my little miracle."
I've prayed desperate prayers for healing. We've brought Kiddo to the altar at church numerous times, had our pastors lay hands on his head and pray for his hearing, his speech, his complete and miraculous healing. Hubster and I pray for both kiddos and their speech and their healing. We have friends and family and members of our church praying for them too.
But a year or so ago, I started turning to Scripture to find passages to pray. And a few of those are what I want to share here.
Prayer for speech:
The first time I decided I needed scripture to pray over my kids, I decided to look up verses that had to do with speaking and words. I found quite a few, but two of them stood out, and when I combined what the verses said about words, well I found the name of this blog as well as a prayer:
"How sweet your words taste to me, sweeter than honey." Psalm 119:103
"A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver." Proverbs 25:11.
When I combined what the verses said about words, well I found the name of this blog as well as a prayer I pray daily for my children, "Oh God, bless my children with sweet apples of gold."
It's become my praise. "Oh, thank you Father for each new sweet apple of gold I heard today! May they be used for your glory!"
Prayer for healing:
About a year ago, I found a passage that I can't believe I hadn't remembered or noticed before.
"Some people brought to Jesus a man who was deaf and could hardly talk, and they begged him to place his hand on the man.
After he took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man's ears. Then he spit and touched the man's tongue. He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh he said to him, "Ephphatha!" (which means, "Be opened!") At this, the man's ears were opened, his tongue loosened, and he began to speak plainly." Mark 7:32-35
Oh, how I love this! The things I've prayed for regarding Kiddo's hearing, his speech, have been included in the Word of God, and a miracle followed. How I long to see this in Kiddo's life. For his right ear to be opened and his mouth opened so that he can speak plainly! Sometimes I can pray on and on, pouring my heart out to God, pleading for my precious child using portions from this passage.
Side story, I attended a Christian women's conference and was excited to see Kiddo's school speech therapist there. She was thrilled to find out I was a believer, and she told me "I just want you to know, that I pray for all the kids I work with, but for Kiddo, I pray Mark 7. It's a passage where Jesus plays the part of a miraculous speech therapist and a deaf, mute man was able to speak plainly at Jesus' touch and His word." And I almost cried, I was so touched that someone else had been praying the same passage over my son that I have been. And I loved the fact that she called Jesus a "miraculous speech therapist." I was so encouraged by that encounter and I don't think it is one I will ever forget.
Prayer of surrender:
Oh, how hard this is to pray at times. Honestly, I don't even know what I would do if/when God heals Kiddo, I think I'd be so beyond overjoyed. But I would rather trust God's plan in my life and Kiddo's, then see Kiddo healed if it wasn't God's plan. And since God obviously keeps saying either no or wait regarding a miraculous healing I will continue to trust and continue to pray and continually surrender my desire for my childrens' healing if it is not what would bring God the most glory.
I am confident of this though: Kiddo will be healed one day. I pray it is here on earth, but it may be in heaven, and in a way, I smile to think that the first thing Kiddo may hear clearly out of his right ear is our loving Father tell him, "Well done, my good and faithful servant." That'd be pretty awesome too.
Prayer for God's glory to be revealed:
I pray often that God would be glorified through our struggles. That Kiddo and Hubster and myself would grow into the men and woman He wants us to be. That we would have an amazing testimony through this struggle and God would get all the glory. That God's glory would one day be revealed through this fiery trial.
"We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love." Romans 5:3-5
"Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed." 1 Peter 4:12-13
And finally, not necessarily a passage from scripture, but Prayer of name/identity:
I have always been impressed with how important names were in the Bible, how much meaning was attached to them, how even names were changed to reflect a new identity. Not really something we see in our culture. While we named our kiddos based on names we liked, we made sure the meanings were something we liked as well.
Anyway, all of a sudden, a realization hit me. That I could be praying for my children based on the meanings of the names we gave them.
For example, Kiddo's first and middle name combined means Strong Warrior Boy. And so I started thanking God that all of these therapy sessions and this journey of kicking apraxia's butt were growing Kiddo into such a strong warrior at such a young age. And I pray that he would grow into a strong warrior for God's kingdom.
Little Brother's name means Defender of Men. Oh, how I prayed that he would live up to his name when he was going through a throwing of toys at others, hitting and biting stage. Thank goodness that is over. Now, I pray that he, my strongwilled child, would be fiercely loyal to God and God's kingdom, that he would always be loving and protecting God's people.
I think we named them well, based on their journeys. ;)
So anyway, just a smattering of the many prayers I pray for myself and my children.
Now, to be honest, there are times I tell God I'm mad that we're going through this journey. I've raged at Him about how much I hate apraxia and all the struggles and therapies and appointments and bills, I hate how far behind Kiddo is from his peers no matter how much work we do, and I especially hate how much I worry and feel like I'm never doing enough to help both kiddos.
I've cried and told God that I doubt He is good, that I don't think He still heals, that He doesn't answer the deepest desires of our hearts.
But the faith and trust always bubbles back up, overshadowing the doubt and the anger and the anxiety, and I always come back to these prayers and to God and to His plan and His purpose and His strength and His hope and His joy and His glory and all those other awesome things He gives to us.
These prayers are my heart. And I share them here in hopes they can encourage yours.
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