The Prayer We Parents Rarely Pray

This is actually a quote from Doug Wolter @ Life2gether. I wanted to share it with you.




We’ve all been there before as parents.

Your child has been told what to do and doesn’t do it.
You’re tired and irritated.
You have no patience left in your parenting tank.
And so, you yell at your child (and perhaps even discipline your child) in anger and frustration.

But what good does it do?

Even though you took charge of the situation, your heart feels empty and frustrated and so does your child’s.

Let’s rewind the tape.

Your child has been told what to do and doesn’t do it.
Instead of reacting in anger, you acknowledge the fact that you are tired and lacking in patience.

So before speaking to your child, you speak first to God.
Just a simple prayer asking Him something like,

"Father, I need your help right now.
I need your Spirit to give me patience and wisdom to talk with my child.
I can’t do it on my own.
I need you and my child needs you.
Without you, Jesus, I can do nothing.
So be with me now as I go.
Open up my heart and my child’s heart to you."

With a simple prayer such as this one, we take our parenting out of our hands and put it into God’s hands. We admit we cannot parent on our own. And so we pray a simple prayer of dependence … a simple prayer of reliance … a simple prayer of surrender.

This is the prayer we parents rarely pray. But I wonder how it would change us, and I wonder how it would change our families.

"Gut Wrencher"

Today is a bit of a "gut wrencher". "My Boy" leaves the country headed to the "Big Sandbox" in Afghanistan. His deployment will be a year. So he will be gone till late Spring or early Summer.

Keep him in your prayers. I know he is in the Lord's hands and He has always done a better job taking care of him than we have. But it's hard knowing he will be in harms way everyday. As far as we know their will be no breaks like last time in Kuwait and Iraq. Always on guard with his head on a swivel, this time. Last time at least he got to be safe three days every now and then.

As you keep us all in your prayers especially remember his precious wife Brantley. We are so thankful for her and her love for Jonathan. He has even more to look forward to coming home to than last time.

We serve a sovereign God. I am glad that He is in charge of every bullet and bomb in Afghanistan. Nothing can touch "My Boy" unless it goes through the hand of my Father and his Father. That theology makes some folks nervous and some folks down right mad but when scripture teaches that the Lord controls the winds and the waves. He moves the hearts of kings. Then controlling a bullet or a bomb is not difficult.

We trust in the Lord.

Gripped by Grace,
Hal

Another year...

Most of my blogs are somebody else's thoughts. You know - quotes from stuff I am reading. But this time it is my thoughts.

It won't be profound but it will be true.

DeeDee and I are about to say "Bye" to our son. This "Bye" will begin a year of separation. He will be in the "sandbox" serving his country, again.

(By the way he has been back less than a year from his last deployment. Is this "change I can believe in?")

A year. Wow, that is such a long time to not see someone. I have my beautiful wife, my baby daughter and son-in-law, my two precious grandchildren. Even every now and then my oldest daughter and son-in-law, come around.

But a year with out seeing "my boy". That was tough last time and it will be hard this time.

If I told you the stuff we have done over the years you would probably look at me strange and say, "The two of you did what?"

But many of those things are the things that are going through my mind

and my heart hurts

and I have a big lump in my throat.

So if you really want to help, pray first for Jonathan's precious wife, Brantley. I can't imagine how she is feeling. Then pray for DeeDee. (see her blog here) Then before you finish - mention me.

I would appreciate it.

I am so glad I am...
Gripped by Grace,
Hal

As You Go...Watch and Pray

I received news yesterday that someone I attended college with took his own life. I saw him a short time ago in a store in Birmingham and we talked and exchanged some pleasantries. But I went no further than that.

Now I wonder, did I miss something? Should I have been more attentive not just to his words but to facial expressions, etc?

We see people everyday, we talk with them but we have our own agendas and our own lists of thing-to-do so we hurry along.

On the other side we let small things and even large things separate us from friends and even family members that really, we love.

Why not, today and everyday, look into the eyes of those you see and pray for them, and love them with the love of Jesus?

The next time you come up on someone you know, slow down and listen. You never know what another person is experiencing right then.

Gripped by Grace,
Hal

Agreeing in Prayer

It is a wonderful thing to see our church family grow in our prayer life together. I have watched the last two weeks as we have gathered around "family members" and prayed for them. The love we see at those times is amazing and heart touching.

I said Sunday we are going to make this something that Calera Baptist is known for. It will not be the exception but the norm.

People are hurting and need our prayers. Most of the things that bother us are minor by comparison to the hurts and pains that some are suffering. So when an annoyance comes - measure it by what you know some of our brothers and sisters are experiencing and let then it pass.


Let's follow scripture and "Bear one another's burdens," and not let the small stuff get our eyes off of each other or the Lord.

Gripped by Grace,
Hal

Stopping by the Church - on a Snowy Morning

Inspite of snow on the ground - many met today at CBC to study the scriptures and worship the Lord. And, O, what a special time it was.

The time of music blessed my heart and took us to the cross, where we should be always. (Thank you Bro. Sam, Praise Team and Praise Band and also Shannon Vines).

Seeing the family of the Lord come around Michelle Clarke, Hilda LeSeuer and Mary Bishop to pray for a work of the Lord in their bodies was a close loving time when the family functioned as it should.

To see some of our young men and youth and children throw snowballs, like a family playing, was refreshing also.

The snow was a reminder of much that we see in the Word:

Job 37:6 "For to the snow he says, 'Fall on the
earth, likewise to the downpour, his mighty
downpour."

Psalms 51:7 "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be
clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow."

Isaiah 1:18 "Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD:though your sins are like scarlet,they shall be as white as snow;though they are red like crimson,they shall become like wool."

Daniel 7:9 [ The Ancient of Days Reigns ] "As I looked, thrones were placed, and the Ancient of Days took his seat; his clothing was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool; his throne was fiery flames; its wheels were burning fire."

Matthew 28:3 "His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow."

Revelation 1:13-15 "and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters."

These are only a few.

Did you know snow was in the scriptures this much?

Praise the Lord for the pictures he gives us of Himself and His work in our world around us daily.

Gripped by Grace,
Hal