"Back to School Time"
Back-to-school time always brings back memories of chalkdust (which I was allergic to), freshly waxed classroom floors, the smell of brand-spanking never-used books, and the lunchroom on the first pizza day.
Maybe you’ve been out braving the crowds at the mall with your children purchasing blue jeans, lunch boxes, and school supplies. Maybe you’ve also searched for the athletic-shoe-of-the-moment. Ads on TV and in magazines try to convince us kids have got to have the latest computers and educational software to be successful in school and have the newest gear to be successful in sports, so we as moms do what we can to provide those.
But the greatest gift we can give our children at back-to-school or any other time isn’t found in a mall, the school supply aisle, or an online store. We don’ t have to charge it on plastic. It won’t shrink our bank account! It won’t shrink or clutter the floor after the new wears off.
And it yields the biggest dividend of anything we can invest in. This gift will outlive our lives! It’s our greatest influence and the best thing we can possibly do to bless our children’s lives, no matter whether they are babies, toddlers, teens, in college or somewhere in between:
“Satan trembles when he sees the weakest saint on her knees, for he knows he has no power against our prayers.”—Fern Nichols
“By prayer you can live in God’s presence with as little effort as you live on the very air you are now breathing.”—Madame Guyon
It’s a mother’s prayer.
Look with me at what prayer can do in the life of a mother:
- Through prayer comes wisdom. There’s a wonderful verse, I call “God’s Private Telephone Number and it’s Jeremiah 33:3 “Call to me and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty and unsearchable things that you do not know.” It’s usually things we need to know as mothers! Call it often.
- We’ll have more energy. If we pray for our children and give God our worries, our energy and joy won’t be sapped by anxiety. And if our marriage is centered in prayer, the unity candle will continue to be lit and there will be more intimacy and strength in our relationship.
- Prayer is our greatest influence on the hearts of our children. We can take our kids to church, get them the best education and be consistent about our family devotions, but we can’t change their hearts. We can’t make them love God and resist the downward slide of the culture around them. Only God through His Spirit can
