Photo courtesy of Karolina Grabowska at Pexels.com

Hello, everyone. Ian, from hot and humid Sydney here. One of our challenges as SUMites is the spiritual welfare of our children. I know for many of us it causes us a great deal of angst for a host of reasons but one that often raises itself in our situations is the lack of support (sometimes downright discouragement) in being able to have our kids attend church/Sunday school. I’m not wanting to focus on the attendance matter in this post, rather, what we, as parents can always being doing irrespective of whether our kids attend any structured Christian activity.

Pray!

Praying Mom (and Dad!)

When we were young, Mom asked the four of us to attend Sunday School at a nearby church. Mom always asked us to give new things a go. Try them for 6 months and if you don’t like it, then you don’t have to go any longer. We didn’t like Sunday School. I can’t recall why, but I think it might have had something to do with the 4 of us being our own unit, and we really didn’t need to be entertained by others.

We complained and Mom then said come to church with her. And we did. Until our 6 months were up. And then it all stopped. I think this grieved Mom because it was her way of being able to attend church herself if we went with her. So she stopped attending.

It wasn’t until we were teenagers, we learnt that Mom had a faith in God. Much to her disappointment she had ceased attending a church due to her responsibilities at home.

Roll forward 10 or so years and emptying nesting after moving to a new suburb, Mom took the opportunity to join the local church which just happened to be a short stroll from home. And there she reacquainted herself with the wonder and joy of a church community. She stayed until her declining mobility made it too difficult for her to attend.

A few years ago, I wrote a novel which attempted to reveal the thin veil that exists between the natural and supernatural worlds. Further, it was a story that sought to demonstrate the power of prayer. The hero’s mum, Louise Haines, was a praying mom. Louise, in the story, drew her inspiration from my mom.

Mom showed us the wonder and power of a praying mom.

One of God’s qualities I so appreciate is His fierce love for each of us. He loves us so intensely and when this love meets the desperate cries of a praying mom (or dad), I reckon God finds it irresistible. He cannot not act.

One of my greatest joys from publishing Angelguard was receiving emails from readers thanking me for Louise Haines and they’d share their miraculous answers to their desperate prayers for their children.

One of the emails I received was from a mom in America. She recalled being woken by God during the night. She got up and knelt not sure what God was asking her to pray about, so she just prayed and prayed.

A few weeks later her son was back on furlough from the war in Afghanistan. They got talking about a particular day when it appeared they were walking into a dangerous situation. Miraculously, the son shared, the severity of the danger dissipated for some unknown reason. This mom asked him what the date was. Between them they determined it was the exact time she had been praying in the middle of the night.

Mystery of Prayer

Yes, there’s much mystery in prayer and the life of faith. As many of you know, over the last five or so years we’ve had two seasons when cancer made its presence known in our family. My sister’s husband and my older brother. We as a family witnessed something very special initiated by Mom. She went on a mission. Prayer became pivotal to Mom’s daily routine. We as a family all started talking about prayer and even Dad, who never demonstrated any level of faith before, started praying. Which interestingly continued until the day he no longer could talk.

One day I was at their home and the supermarket delivery arrived. The delivery man clearly had a connection with Mom when I answered the door. He asked me to pass on a message to Mom – “tell her my mom is praying every day for your brother, John.” That was Mom. Even the supermarket delivery man had been enlisted in the prayer chain. And that’s one of the wonders of prayer. It hops from one person to another, to another, to another and on on  …

Gratefully, both my brother-in-law and brother are now in seasons of full remission.

To all you praying Moms (and Dads), thank you. And please keep praying.

Remember that the welfare of our children’s faith isn’t just in our hands but in God’s. He cares just as much as we do as they’re His beloved children, made in His image. He’s not going to let them go without doing everything to stir their hearts, souls, and minds. But there is one thing we can always be doing – praying for our kids, handing them over to the safest and most faithful set of hands that exists.

To our knees we go!

Grace and peace

PS. If there's a particular prayer need you might have for your kids, please don't hesitate to share it in the comments (if that's okay) so we can get around each other in praying for our kids.