“What’s over?” she asked.
“You know,” I said, “the whole parenting thing.”
“Trust me,” she said with amusement in her voice. “It’s never
over!”
How true I have found that to be! Though both our sons are
grown now, both married to wonderful women and doing a great job
of raising their own children, we are still their parents. We try not to
butt into their affairs with unsolicited advice, but when they come to
us for help, we are here for them.
But beyond any hands-on help or verbal advice, there is one way
we stay involved in their lives, their decisions, their marriages, their
child rearing, their jobs—and that is through prayer. Each morning
we lift them in prayer to the Father who loves them more than we
do.
And what do we seek for them in prayer? We seek the same bless-
ings that Paul sought for the Thessalonians: that they will remain
true to their high calling in Christ as they are constantly emptied of
their own willfulness and filled with his Spirit. We pray that God will
fulfill every good purpose for which he created them, and that his
amazing love might make them alive—this love that is greater and
more gracious than we can comprehend.
Father, bless our children. Bring forth the highest and the best in
them. Reveal to us our roles in their lives as the kind of parents you
would have us be. Help us not to worry or to meddle but to pray. We
trust you with their lives. Amen.101 MOST POWERFUL PRAYERS IN THE BI BLE 41