How to Pray for Your Kids…and Someone Else's

Praying for your kids seems so easy when they are small, sweet and perfect. However, if your child gets sick, or appears to lose interest in God or strays from the recommended path, it’s not as simple.
As children’s ministry leaders, we also have the responsibility to pray for all the sheep in our care, still many leaders don’t know how or what to pray. And that’s okay! If you sense that you need/want to improve in this area of leadership for your children, or someone else’s, you can easily do so.
Remember these tips when taking on the role of prayer warrior for kids:
Pray without fear. Poor Job. He didn’t just experience the worst life had to offer, he expected it. The Book of Job shows us how this champion of the faith offered up sacrifices for a list of imagined sins that his children committed, then a few verses later, Satan arrives to challenge God over Job’s children. Connection? Possibly! In any case, we should banish fear from our prayers. Instead of assuming the worst, naming sins and speaking the negative, we should declare like Joshua, “As for me and my house, we shall serve the Lord!”
Always agree with God. I strongly recommend that you participate in a regular devotion time. Eat and drink the Word; that way, when it comes time to pray, you can easily agree with God on good things for your children. (“Yes, God! My children are fearfully and wonderfully made!) It’s hard to agree when you don’t know what He said.
Don’t be afraid to pray prophetically, practically. For example, I’m not advocating assumptive prayer about a child’s future call–that’s personal! However, it’s good to pray prophetically like this, “I declare that my child will walk in obedience to you, Lord, and that he will reap all the benefits you promised him.” Prophetically declare that her ears will hear the Lord when He speaks, that her heart will long for and follow God and that she will enjoy a long happy life, as promised to children who honor their parents.
With so much to do in ministry, and in life, it’s easy to neglect prayer. Even when you do pray, it can feel like you’re doing it “wrong.” God hears you and He’s not grading your prayers with a red pen! Go to Him daily on behalf of your kids and watch the miraculous occur!