Nothing will drive to your knees in prayer like becoming a mother. Those precious little souls are so vulnerable. Hopefully, you have been praying since before your children were even born – for their physical needs and safety, but more importantly for the things that will touch their souls. Perhaps though the exhaustion that often accompanies mothering has thwarted your prayer life. Not only may you find yourself falling asleep mid-prayer, but you may also have realized days have gone by without you having any sort of personal conversation with God at all.
I am pretty sure it has happened to all of us at some point. (Or am I the only one?). That’s why I was so excited when the packet of books arrived for me to review (associated with the movie War Room – about which I can’t tell you anything pro or con), to see a new book on prayer by Priscilla Shirer, Fervent: A Woman’s Battle Plan to Serious, Specific and Strategic Prayer.
Full confession here, I am rather the Priscilla Shirer fan. I find her books to be direct, practical and very scripture based. Having said that, this may just be my absolute favorite of all of her books. I judge how well I like a Christian book by how many little sticky flags I place on the pages. I often will quote these thoughts in my ministry (giving full credit of course). This one is covered in little purple flags!
Our family was able to enjoy this past weekend in New York City. I loved my years living there and thoroughly enjoy exploring it again with the family I am now blessed to have. New York City can be a very tough, harsh place though. There are noises, dirt, crime and millions of people with stories that would break your heart. Living there has broken many a person, I am sure.
There is a new Christian film which is opening in a week or two (August 28, 2015 War Room). The underlying theme is prayer, so they are releasing five new books on prayer to support the film. I was given an opportunity to review all of them. I’m still reading the ones for women and men, but wanted to give you my thoughts on the three for children and teens.
by Stephen and Alex Kendrick (illustrated by Daniel Fernandez) is a delightful picture book on prayer for the youngest set. The little boy in the book keeps looking for the perfect place to pray. Of course, no place is just right until he discovers they all are perfect for talking with God. Most picture books on prayer are frankly just not that interesting. This one keeps an engaging story line while teaching an important concept about prayer.
When you think of the books to suggest to those beginning to read their Bibles independently, Psalms may not immediately come to mind. We tend to think of the book of Psalms as a book of poetry and young people are notorious for disliking poetry. If we present it to kids and teens for the purposes it was originally intended though, I think they will find it is one of their favorite books.
Yes, I just made up a new term. For the purposes of our discussion, social prayer is any opportunity your child is given to pray aloud in public. It could be as simple as praying before a meal or as difficult as praying privately with someone who is going through a devastating time.