Antjie, die Rooibruin hen: Interior with Woman Teaching Child to Pray

Sunday, 9 February 2014

Interior with Woman Teaching Child to Pray

Interior with Woman Teaching Child to Pray

by: Pierre-Edouard Frère.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about what our priorities as Proverbs 31 Women should be. I stressed that our families and homes are our ministries and that few women with young children can handle more. But I do think there is one other type of ministry many mothers can handle: Prayer.

Now if you're still at the stage where your kids are really young, need your almost constant attention, and you're finding it difficult to get in any prayer time at all, please do not add anything more to your plate. Focus on serving your family while balancing this ministry with talking to and worshiping God and reading his Word.

But if your children are a little older, there are plenty of opportunities to become a prayer warrior. The Bible tells us to pray continually (1 Thes. 5:17)- yet how many of us truly do this? If you make prayer a ministry in your life, however, not only will you obey God, but you'll set a holy example for your children.

You can:

Pray first thing in the morning, before rising from bed.

Pray at the breakfast table, with your children.

Pray before you begin reading to your children, or start homeschooling, or before sending your children off to school.

Pray while you do household chores, including the dishes, the laundry, the floors, the dusting, the vacuuming - you name it!

Pray before eating lunch.

Pray before sending your children outside to play.

Pray before helping your children with their homework.

Pray before driving off to run errands.

Pray every time you hear a siren or see an emergency vehicle.

Pray while you prepare meals.

Pray before dinner, with your family.

Pray before beginning family time in the evening.

Pray in the shower.

Pray with your children, while tucking them in for the night.

Pray before tucking yourself in at night.

Pray if you have trouble sleeping.

Really, we have almost endless time to pray. The trick is to put our minds to it - to train ourselves to remember to pray. A few things that help me:

* If the kids aren't in the room, I pray.

* If someone comes to mind, I pray for that person.

* If I hear of an emergency of any kind, large or small, I pray.

* I pray whenever someone is coming or going. (For example, when I hear my husband hop

into the shower before work, just before he comes home in the evening.)

* When doing manual labor, I pray.

* When I feel anything strongly (frustration, anger, love...), I pray.

* If by chance I have a moment alone, I pray before doing anything else.