Praying for Samuel - Revisited

Here is a post that had a whopping 27 comments back in January of this year. Leah wrote about praying for her first son, Samuel. To read the original post and comments - go here. Enjoy these great reminders - as we could never run out of things to pray for about our children.

The books that I recommended a few weeks ago are the inspiration for how I pray for my son, Samuel. The wisdom from those books has really helped me direct how I approach Samuel's spiritual condition and my place in molding that.

The basic idea is that every six months you and your husband should take time out to discuss each child's strengths and weaknesses. Then you commit to praying through each of those and working with your child to embrace his strengths and have victory over his weaknesses.

At one year of age, Ed and I talked about Samuel's strengths and weaknesses for the first time. Now mind you, a one year old doesn't generate that long of list of strengths and weaknesses. But they are there and easy to recognize. Here is his 12 month list:

Areas to Praise-
Friendly with others
Relatively obedient

Areas to Work On-
Doesn't sit still through Sunday meetings

For the past five months, I've been praying for Samuel in these areas. I also pray for ways to work with Samuel on a day to day basis to encourage him and help him improve.

Ed and I will again sit down in about a month to pray over these things and update our list. I love this approach because it gives me practical ways to pray for Samuel. And there are so many triggers throughout the day to remind me to pray for him. As I see him exhibit something from the list, I can stop and pray.

**In case anyone is wondering about the area of "sitting still through Sunday meetings", please read two different sources that I really like on this topic: John & Noel Piper and Raising Godly Tomatoes.

Also, when I was pregnant with Samuel, I chose a verse from Jeremiah that I wanted to pray over him. I painted this onto a mural that hangs in his room. Here is his verse:

Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord.
He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit. - Jer. 17:7-8

I am working on picking a verse for the new baby, due to arrive in two months.