PrincipledMom™

Principle 2: Be Word-focused

When praying with your kids, make sure to include a lot of Scripture. They need to get their prayers from God's Word, and they need to see what God says about their situation. We must keep our minds fixed on the Lord (1 Cor. 10:3-6).

We can't know everything about a situation. We must get the mind of the Lord, properly applying the Word to the situation. Heb. 4:12 Our children must learn how to search God's Word for themselves. Teach them how to use a concordance and how to pray scriptures. One book I highly recommend is Praying the Scriptures by Judson Cornwall.

Show then the Bible isn't just a dusty old book on the shelf. It is alive and filled with God's solutions. He will speak to them  from His Word just as He does you. Let them own that. Give them opportunities to hear from God through His Word.

When they read God's Word faithfully, they will increase their spiritual vocabulary. It is the highest form of literature and it will improve their prayers, making them more articulate and spiritually relevant (making more targeted prayers and not simple "bless my mommy" type prayers). They can read the prayers of others and it will inspire their own prayer time.

It will give them ammunition in their thought life. When ungodly thoughts come to mind they are able to combat them with scripture prayers. If fear tries to come, they can pray, "I thank you father, you have not given me a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." Instant prayers are contained in the Scriptures that come to mind in a crisis.

And speaking of a crisis, make a list of scriptures for emergency situations. When things are swirling, that is not the time to crack your Bible and try to find that scripture you can't quite remember. One way you can do that is to have a file box in your kitchen or other central location. Use dividers for topics like healing, love, peace, relationships, etc. and write on scripture on each index card and place in the box. If you ever need them, there they are.

I hope you will use your Bible more with your children in your prayer time, not just as inspiration, but as a part of your armor of God (Eph. 6). The sword of the Spirit is a very effective weapon in your prayer time and teaching your kids how to use God's Word effectively will transform your family prayer time.

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