Prayers for Your Children Book Review plus giveaway

We believe, strongly, in the power of prayer over our children.  We pray for their health.  We pray for their character and their walk with Christ.  We pray for their future spouses, their future children, and their future careers.  We believe that our prayers are part of their legacy.

Prayers for Your Children: 90 Days of Heartfelt Prayers for Children of Any Age

When we were pregnant with Mister, we knew that there was a chance that he’d be born with Hay Wells Syndrome.  One of the most prevalent characteristics of Hay Wells Syndrome is a cleft lip and palate.  I was born with a submucous cleft palate, which is a cleft that is covered over by the lining (mucous membrane) of the roof of the mouth. We prayed daily that he would not be affected by Hay Wells Syndrome, but that if he was, that he’d be born without any facial or oral anomalies.  When I was about seven months pregnant, I had a dream that confirmed in my heart that he would be affected by the skin disorder.  We went to a leadership meeting that night, and I asked for prayer (again) for his mouth.  A dear missionary friend asked if he could lay hands on my stomach and pray, I said yes.  He prayed specifically that God would supernaturally knit the lip and palate together as they were designed to be.  After he prayed, I knew that Mister’s mouth would be fine.  I no longer even felt the need to bring it to God in prayer, because it was a done deal.

When Mister was born, he was affected by Hay Wells Syndrome.  His lip was normal.

When he screamed, which was often since he had colic, his palate appeared to be intact.  The ENT said he’d have to have routine palate checks until around the age of two, as a submucous cleft could be “hidden”.  Mine wasn’t discovered until I was in Kindergarten.

Then when he was ten months old, he had to have surgery to have bilatateral nasolacrimal stints, bilateral ear tubes, and a right inguinal hernia repair.  The ENT said he’d be able to do a final palate check in surgery, as it’d be much easier to inspect the palate under anesthesia.

When the ENT came out to the surgery waiting area after surgery, he said, “It’s the strangest thing.  His palate seems to have knit together at the last minute.  It looks like he was going to have a cleft, but for whatever reason, it closed.  He has a tiny notch at the back of the palate bone, that would have been a submucous cleft, but it’s not.  I’ve never seen anything like it”

My heart quickened in that moment, and I knew that his palate was knit together in the seventh month of my pregnancy when my friend layed hands on me and prayed that the lip and palate would be supernaturally knit together.

As you can imagine, we believe, strongly, in the power of prayer over our children.   I could tell you many more stories that have shown the power of prayer over our children.

We recently had the opportunity to review Prayers for Your Children: 90 Days of Heartfelt Prayers for Children of Any Age.  As much as we already pray for our children, I was excited to be able to review this book.  There are times when we feel like we’ve prayed all there is to pray.  In moments like these, having Prayers for Your Children on my nightstand is a great way to reinvigorate our prayers for our children.

 

Many parents have witnessed the power of faithful prayer over their child’s life, praying for health and healing from heartbreaks and for spiritual awakening and future direction, and inside Prayers for Your Children, pastor and author James Banks offers ninety accessible, Scripture-based prayers that you can pray for your own kids during every season of their lives.

Filled with heartfelt wisdom and truth, these ready-to-use prayers cover specific needs, including knowing Christ as Savior, loving the Lord and others, experiencing God’s protection, and walking in purity. Witness the power of prayer as you glean through the pages of this book and talk with God on behalf of your child.

In this 90 day prayer guide, an entire week is spent on the 23rd Psalm, which I absolutely love.  The daily prayers list Scripture to pray for your children, and there’s nothing quite as powerful as praying Scripture.  The prayers alternate boy/girl, but can easily be adapted to your kids.  I especially appreciated Day 9: Roots and Wings.  In it, the author writes,

“I’ve heard it said that a child needs ‘roots’ and ‘wings,’ Lord.  Roots to understand where he comes from, and wings to lift him where he needs to go.
Today I ask for both…”

He goes on to include verses that describe our roots in faith, as well as our wings.  I must confess, I repeated this prayer for several days before I moved on.  It’s that good.

I would definitely recommend Prayers for Your Children to any parent who is serious about bathing their children in prayer.  I plan to start gifting it to new and expectant parents that we know!

Prayers for Your Children is available on Amazon and at local retailers.