Burden
This word has been going through my mind the past few weeks.
It means:
A load, typically a heavy one.
My children have been a heavy burden lately. I am not meaning a negative one where they are doing wrong and they are horrible children, because they are NOT!
The burden I am meaning is that children go through so much and there's things that get thrown at them that they are not mature enough to know how to carry the burdens themselves. They are still growing and they are still maturing and finding who they are in Christ!
I put a back pack as the photo to this devotional because our kids carry stuff around with them. The image is a good one to just keep in mind when we think about our kids and what they carry with them every day.
We as parents and grown ups, take those and carry them when they don't know we do that. It is a hard job and we just do it because well, it is what we do.
For example:
My eldest child, who is my bio child, has had a rough time in the past few years. His diagnosis of ADHD and anxiety just hasn't fit what's been going on. As a mom, we normally can understand our children and what is going on. Most times, people don't listen to us when WE know there's something more. This has been the case for a long time.
He at 13 and has FINALLY been diagnosed with high-functioning Autism. So he has been trying to navigate that and as mom, I’ve been trying to help him through that. Thankfully there's lots of resources out there online and other moms who have experience as well to bounce ideas off of! My son is carrying that burden and as a parent, so am I.
Its been a heavy one on me.
Our other children (bio and bonus) are going through things as well. Changes with maturity, growing and navigating through school, friends and learning who friends are and who friends are not! We have been there, done that as a kid. It can be quite frustrating figuring this growing up thing out!
Since we have bonus kids, We have kids going back and forth to other houses. They are all trying to navigate their feelings of changes and that is a burden they are carrying as well. The best thing we can do as parents is to just pray for them and them all know we are supporting them!
Going into this new year I want to make it a priority to pray for all of my kids. ALL 5 of them are my kids and so my shoulders get pretty heavy with the burdens each one of them have at times.
How can I pray for them going forward this this new year?
First I want to look at this promise God has about carrying burdens. We are to not carry our burdens alone. I can share them with my husband, pastor's wife and other christian ladies that I trust that will pray too.
Make sure you have someone as well that you can share your burdens with. We are to bear each others burdens.
Galatians 6:2 Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
Protection
2 Thessalonians 3:3
But the Lord is faithful, who shall stablish you, and keep you from evil.
Pray for protection over their body as well as in their mind and their hearts. Pray for protection online and from impure images from social media, the web, books and from things they are shown from people that call themselves friends. Pray for the protection as they go to and from school, that they choose to be around the right friends and to not be influenced by the wrong crowd. That they put on the full armor of God and the hedge of protection are around them every day.
Direction
Psalms 37:23
The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord; and he delighteth in his way.
Pray that their steps are ordered by the Lord. That he directs and he guides them and that they have a heart for the things of God. That as they make choices on their own, they seek the guidance of God through those decisions.
Love for the Word
Psalms 19:10
More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.
Pray that they desire to read Gods word and they grow to want to understand his word. That they find it to be sweeter than honey and the honeycomb and more valuable than any gold or silver.
Salvation
Acts 2: 38, 39
Then Peter said unto them, "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the give of the Holy Ghost.
For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.
Pray for the heart of repentance as they grow and for the Holy Spirit to fill them and to fill their life.
Thankfulness
1 Samuel 1:27
For this child I prayed; and the Lord hath given me my petition which I asked of him;
Pray a prayer of thankfulness for the children or child he has given. Let your children hear your gratefulness.
There are many more areas you can certainly pray about. For me, these are the main ones that I want to focus on for all of my kids.
I hope this has been somewhat helpful for you and that this has been a guide to get you started. Just in writing this, I myself have found this to be useful and have found a few more things to add to my list to pray about!
Funny how that works out sometimes.
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