Shift Your Focus
The Day I Entered the 'Small Group' Scene

Praying for Adult Children

By Ann Hutchison Adult baby birds

Recently I was on the phone to my mum and told her I was going to take my two boys on a hike without Bryce. This sent her into instant Mum-anxiety mode. Breathing heavily down the phone she said, "Will you be ok?" and ... "Make sure you take water."

So funny. She will never stop acting like my Mum. Even though I am 46. To her I am like the big baby bird in this picture here -- Big, but still her baby.

I know many of you watch your adult children with baited breath: You watch them exercise their free will in matters that may get them lost ... And so does God watch them. I still have this to come, but I can only imagine how easy it is to get anxious about an adult child.

As an adult child myself who was spiritually lost, one day my Mum ever-so-gently gave me a book as a gift -- A Christian book. It was called Journey into God's heart by Jennifer Rees Larcombe. It was a powerful spiritual memoir and testimony. I read it on the plane home after visiting my parents and by the end of the plane journey I was bawling. That book had a big part to play in bringing me to God. Behind the scenes, of course, was my Mum.

Jennifer Rees Larcombe, that book's author, is now a minister in the UK and, because her book brought me to God I have a special love for her ministry (Beauty from Ashes). She remains one of my favorite people to read on Facebook. She is also a grandparent and has six adult children, some of whom have walked through some really tough stuff. 

Last week she posted this question on Facebook, and I'm going to repeat it because the replies people gave contained so much helpful stuff. She said: Jen's post

Could you help me with your practical tips?
I never know how to pray for my grown up children so I have a stone for each of them and, one by one, I pick them up and lift them to the Lord. What helps you?
 
Then she posted a photo of the stones .. Which I just had to include because it's lovely. I love the fact the stones are all different, capturing the uniqueness of each child.
 
Even better, in the comments an array of wonderful suggestions came back. Here's the link to the Facebook page where you can see all the suggestions more fully, which are well worth reading (the post is on 27 January), but for now here are some of the suggestions people gave:
 
- Make prayer for your adult children a daily routine; 
 
- Use a poem, hymn, or passage of scripture and insert their names into it, reading it out loud;
 
- Remember to thank God for these children and thank him for looking after them;
 
- Use a photo as a prompt to pray for them when looking at it. (One lady said she keeps a photo of each child in her Bible, another said she has a mug with their faces on and when she drinks from it she'll pray).
 
- Journal words of prayer and blessing over them.
(One lady said she writes their names down and then doodles creatively, writing ideas and words as she prays).
 
- And finally, don't forget simple prayers of simple trust, for sometimes we just don't have the words.
"Lord, I lift them up to you", "Lord, enter their lives", and "Lord I entrust my children to you."
 
There was so much more, and I was hesitant to copy people's individual responses so I kept the above summary broad, but if this topic speaks to you do take a look at the Facebook post (you don't have to be on Facebook to be able to read the post).
 
As for us, how about we answer the same question here: How do you pray for your adult children?
 
Nice chatting, 
Ann
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