"The Brothers Grimm tell the story of Sleeping Beauty, which opens with all of the fairies in the kingdom bringing baptismal gifts to an infant princess. One fairy gives beauty, another offers virtue, a third bestows kindness, and so on until the little girl has everything she needs to grow into a wise and lovely young woman.
Reading this story to my own young daughters, I used to wish that such blessings were so easy to come by. Just throw a christening party, invite all the fairies, and - presto! - your child would be covered.
But God gives us another - better - way to provide these gifts (& so many more) for our children. He invites us to pray." Praying the Scriptures for Your Children - Jodie Berndt
Each time I'm pregnant, my mind covers every thought & worry possible. I'm sure this is the norm for most mothers who are expecting. At some point in the pregnancy, the Holy Spirit catches hold of me & convicts me about my worrying, & I have to give the child over to God. This "giving over" is something that has to continually happen in my heart to keep me in-check. I do it while I'm pregnant, & maybe even more so after the baby is born when I'm tempted to stay up 24/7 just to watch him breathe.
I talked about this more in depth on this blog a couple of years ago after John was born.
Here's a link to that post, if you haven't read it.
As we prepared for Jeb's Baby Dedication, I thought about the spiritual responsibility I have as a parent. Now that my first baby is almost 6 years old, I'm learning more & more about what this "giving them over" means. I've mentioned on several occasions how I learn so much about God through my children. Talk about accountability partners! My tiny creatures who love our life of routine & habit keep me on my toes. We have many times throughout the day that we pray. We like to start our day with prayer-asking for God's hand in all of our activities, asking Him to remind us of Him all day, & to let Him know that we want to make Him happy with the things we do that day. We pray before each meal, acknowledging that what we have is because of His provision and blessings. Then, we praise and pray at the end of the day. These are all great, & hopefully through this, we are instilling a life of prayer within our kids, but as my children grow & their needs change, I am realizing the weight of my responsibility to pray for every aspect of my kids' lives.
We, as Christians, are in a battle for the souls of our children. The older my children get, the more I realize just how "loud" the World is. I have a favorite friend who is in a very different season in her life. She is a Mother & a Grandmother as well. She has mentioned to me how her role has changed as her children have grown into adults and now have children of their own. She explained that while they were young, she prayed for them & was able to guide them with rules and discipline. But now that they're adults, it's very different, but the Holy Spirit showed her that her role is to be their prayer warrior. She says how important it is for her to pray for her children because God gave them to her. No one knows them or loves them like she does, therefore, no one can pray for them the way that she can.
When I was at the store getting a Bible for Jeb's Baby Dedication, I found the book I quoted at the beginning of this post about praying the scriptures for your children. I bought it & am in the process of devouring it. She had me at the Sleeping Beauty reference. It reads further, "Sleeping Beauty may have had a bevy of fairies in her nursery, but we have access to the throne room of the King of Kings. And given a choice between the two, I know which one I'd pick."
Nothing is more powerful & effective than praying God's Word! (Heb. 4:12)
Here are a few of my favorite pictures from Jeb's Baby Dedication day.
In PreacherHub's office before the service.
This is the picture we chose for them to share. haha
My sweet men before church.
Our Sunday morning pics before church.
I felt like I needed to add a little pink into the mix! ;)