Having a Meek and Quiet Spirit. 7 of 23

Praying for Your Children - a lesson from the Syrophenician Woman
Mark 7:28, 29 "And ye answered and said unto him, Yes, Lord; yet the dogs under the table eat of the children's crumbs. And he said unto her, For this saying go thy way; the devil is gone out of thy daughter."

Read Matthew 15:21 -28; Mark 7:24-30

There's only one story in the Bible where the parent prays for the Spiritual help of her child. There's much we can learn from this mother as we go though this lesson.
Do you talk with your children? Do you know what they are going through or what some specific needs are they have? You say, wait a minute! I'm their mom or dad of course I know what they're needs are! Not necessarily, our children talk to us yes, but do they tell us everything. Think back to when you were a young girl/boy did you tell mom and dad EVERYTHING??? OK lets see what we can learn about this young girl in the Bible.

1. In order to pray for her child properly, a mother should recognize her enemy.
Who is the enemy? The wrong crowd, the world, Satan.....Think about it. Yes the first two can be the enemy but our biggest enemy is Satan! We need to pray daily that God protects our children from the wiles of the Devil. We can't protect them 24 hrs a day because they do go to school, they play with their friends and when they are home we don't keep them by our side the whole time. I know that we want to keep them safe and right there but common sense tells us we can't. However, God can protect them when we can't!!!

2. In order to pray for her children properly, a mother should pray humbly.
When you go to the Lord in prayer for your children go humbly before him! Let him know what you are seeking for your child.

3. In order to pray for her child properly, a mother should pray in faith.
The Syrophenician Woman showed faith in her prayers 3 different ways
1. She said, Yes Lord and agreed with what He was teaching even if she felt it wasn't right.
2. She believed that God had something for her.
3. She sought after the Lord even when others said she should turn away and forget it.

We need to pray for our children daily.
If you are unsure what to pray for, for your children here's a sample prayer list:
~their salvation  ~their health  ~their safety  ~their future mates (yes it's never to early to start praying that your son or daughter will marry the man/woman God has for them).  These are just a few things you can pray for, there are things that you as the parent of Sue, or James know the needs of your children. Make sure you talk with them, have a relationship with your children that will make it where they want to and feel comfortable talking to you.

There are things that we do that causes our children to NOT want to talk with you:
Yelling at them all the time
Putting them off.... I touched on this in "Being the Help Meet You were Meant to BE" I know as a parent there are maybe things you need to do. Let me ask is that TV show, computer game, facebook, my space and other things that are more important than your children?  Who is more important Susan or Star Trek?
What is more important the Science Fair project or a game on the Internet?
We are in a day and age where electronics is big, we need to think back to when we were kids or even back to the 80's we didn't have cell phones, computers, or whatever is out there. Our children need our Prayers they need us to be a TRUE parent to them!!

My prayer is that if you have not been praying for your children that you will start TODAY!!