Praying for Our Kids

One of the benefits of being a pastor's wife is I get to listen to lots of great sermons delivered by my wonderful husband. Yesterday he preached on intercessory prayer from Genesis 18.

To briefly summarize, it's the story of God deciding to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. God tells Abraham of His plans, and Abraham says "Wait! You can't destroy it. My friend Lot and his family are there. Surely the city isn't that sinful and wicked. If you find, say, 50 righteous people living there, will you spare it?"

And God says, "Yes, I'll spare it for 50 people." Except He doesn't find 50 righteous people, so Abraham goes back to God and asks God to spare it for 40 people, then 30 and 20 and finally 10.

God doesn't spare the cities, which is sad and a whole other topic in that ten God-honoring people couldn't be found in two cities. But God still partly answers Abraham's prayers and saves Lot and his family.

There's amazing power in intercessory prayer. Through prayer, Abraham begged that two entire cities be saved, and he would have gotten his wish--had there been righteous people in those cities.

And so, as we think about how powerful prayer is, and how much good prayer can do in our lives and our country, I'm wondering how often we pray for our kids. I'm not talking about little prayers like "God, please help Sammy to have a good day at school" or "God, let Sammy score a goal in hockey today," or "God, give Sammy a good grade on this test."

Really, truly, how often do we get down on our knees and beg the Creator of the Universe to intercede in our children's lives?

God has given me two precious little boys, and I only have one chance to raise them. I'm going to start praying harder for my little ones, and I hope you'll join me in praying harder for your children as well.

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Angie Dicken is hosting me over on Writer's Alley today. I'm being interviewed on entering your unpublished manuscript in writing contests, particularly ACFW's Genesis contest (which I finaled in last year). Stop by and say hi if you have a chance, and feel free to ask lots of questions. I'll do my best to answer them.

Also, if you like the photo of my little guys at the top of the page, be sure to check out Michaela Wickman at www.michaelawickmanphotography.com. Michaela took some author and family pictures for us last fall, and she did a wonderful job! She'd going to be appearing on our blog in February and giving away some photos.