Seven Priorities for Great Parenting
Dennis and Barbara Rainey
Priority 1: Prayer
This one probably does not surprise you.
Priority 1: Prayer
This one probably does not surprise you.
Pray regularly.
Bring every concern, dream, and desire about your child to God in fervent, persistent prayer. (Luke 18:1–8contains a great parable on persistent prayer that must have been for parents of teenagers.)
Two of the best times to pray with your child are on the way to school (assuming you drive him) and at bedtime—regardless of age.
Now that our teenagers drive themselves to school, we use breakfast for this prayer time.
Bedtime prayers can be more personal for each child.
Bedtime prayers can be more personal for each child.
Pray for his future mate, relationships, activities, challenges, temptations, and heart for God. Don’t assume that a teenager is too big for you to kneel beside his bed and stroke his face and pray.
Pray offensively.
Pray offensively.
Before and after your child hits adolescence, pray for his peer group—that he will have at least one strong Christian buddy for the teenage years.
Ask God to protect your child daily from others who would be an evil influence.
Also consider asking God to help you spot your child doing things right so that you can encourage him in making right choices.
Pray defensively.
Pray defensively.
On more than one occasion we have sought the Lord’s help in removing a friend of questionable character from a child’s life.
From time to time we have felt that one of our teens might be deceiving us, but we could never be absolutely certain.
In those situations we have asked God to help us catch him if he’s doing something wrong.
God seems to feel sorry for parents who pray this prayer! Pray when God brings your child to your mind.
It may be at that very moment, your child is facing a circumstance of critical importance.
Pray with your child. It’s easy for prayer to become an exclusive dialogue—you and God.
Pray with your child. It’s easy for prayer to become an exclusive dialogue—you and God.
Why not do what one mom, Nina, did with her teenage daughter, Natalie, and become prayer partners?
Natalie’s teenage years were filled with special moments in which she and her mom knelt together and prayed over Natalie’s struggles and challenges.
Pray together as a couple.
Pray together as a couple.
For more than 26 years of marriage we have ended each day in prayer together as a couple.
No spiritual discipline has protected our marriage and our family more than this daily time of communion together with God.
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