Prayers of the People - Day 6
Precious Time
“Pray for parents to spend intentional time discipling their kids & modeling how to love our neighbors as ourselves in this season.” April 24, Dominique Gilliard
This morning my doctor told me I shouldn’t expect to hug my friends before Christmas. I felt truly thrown. After some choice reactions, emotions and lucid nightmares -- all typed out then deleted -- I centered myself in the reality at hand. And my thoughts flew to my children. My two children know my mood without asking and mimic it without trying. It would be useless to ask them to ignore me. They want the opposite. They want to join my conversations and memorize my music. They want me to play their games and watch their make-believe cooking show. They want to be my friends.
When Jesus showed up to make this weary world rejoice, he was a child. He made friends with people who had to come to him as children. He invited children to be near him as he taught. He made them a kingdom example.
The most overt adoration of Jesus happened after his birth. When shepherds and wise men came to see a newborn, that’s what they found. They worshipped a baby. Would you? Would you bow down at the crib of a child, like the delegation of astrologers from the East whom we have called so wise? Will you take the position of wisdom and bring gifts to the young ones that God has sent to set the future right?
I was most upset with my doctor because I have a selfish view of my time. My babies are so presumed to be part of my day that it is their academic and physical growth, not relational needs, which are central to my attention. When I think of who I can chill with, it ain’t them. I do not feel wrong for missing my peers. I do still feel badly for my children missing their peers. I also hear the Holy Spirit inviting, pursuing me, into the act of befriending my children. For the time that I have measured as precious is not gone, it is applied to a different relational pursuit that, as it turns out, needs immediate attention for my own growth! The Lord has named our children precious, so too is all the time we give them. And there is no time to waste.
Lord, hear the prayers of your people
Champion of children, you are their source of laughter and their great defender in these days of need. We pray for the power and compassion to love them like you love them. Teach us in the same way you teach them, Lord. We want to be your children, O God. We want to be near our little ones as you are near to them. We want to call them our friends.
Please be with the people whose hearts do not find their children precious. Will you soften their stubbornness or soothe their sadness?
Please hold still the tongues of parents whose anger or grief might wound their young.
Move the mind of abusive “guardians” to more faithful action. Make them repent. Make them loving. Move the youth in danger out of evil’s path. Relocate them, reassure them, rise up for them, O God.
Make us meek and patient when the thousandth question from our children’s minds collides with the middle of our work meetings. Open our hearts and our schedules. Redirect our no. Make our attentions earnest and un-rushed.
And Lord, encourage the exhausted. Bring abundance to the guardians crushed by debt.
Draw near to the parents who feel alone. Give rest and renewal to loved ones caring for young relatives they did not plan for. Provide for parents whose children have special needs that they feel unable to meet. And will you heal the children who hurt their parents? We believe that you can.
Save our babies from our saltiness when we are interrupted, from our negative reactions when we lack self-control. Shepherd them, Lord, as you shepherd us, for we are unable to be perfect in their protection and discipleship. Make us wise O God, make us winsome. Give us the grace that it takes to stay hopeful. Make us as proud and patient as you are when we come as children to you.
And Lord, if you will, remind us again - and again - that we are all your children. Emphasis on your. Lead us in remembrance to your Word. Parent us into faith that we might disciple our children. Give us the hunger and thirst for your attention that our little ones have for us.
Let us lead them into the same passion for knowledge of you. Let them join our prayer times, let them lead us with their own praying spirits.
Let them see us giving to the cause of justice. Let them know us as people who speak the truth.
Let them sharpen us as iron on iron. Let them encourage us to pursue good works.
Let them hear our laughter and our tears. Make them wise beyond our own years.
Bring them the inheritance of Jesus in the temple - may his mind be in them also, that they might astonish the people with their emotional intelligence and spiritual strength.
Please bless them, Lord, that they might learn what they need to know in this season, to comfort the afflicted and speak truth about the wicked without absorbing the trauma that nationalist terrorism brings.
Open our hands, O God, that we would not teach them parenting as control. Open our hearts O God, that we would speak humility and life, mourning with those who mourn and holding close the hope that you are yet living and able to deliver us.
Cover all of us in the midst of various trials and unlikely joys. Make yourself known to us - hold us steady in your power.
Give us a testimony that we can share together, as older children and younger children, at one table, from one generation, in one house, looking up - together - to you.
Great God, Champion of children, hear the prayers of your people. Amen.
Scripture: Psalm 8, Matthew 2
Experience: The Afrominimalist’s Story Time Series on Instagram Live. Follow @afrominimalist
Music: Isn’t She Lovely, Stevie Wonder / Thank You for Your Child, Kirk Franklin
Artwork: April Harrison
Prayer Requests: https://forms.gle/n8SXo2TbySX3T2iE6
COVID-19 Prayer Calendar by Dominique Gilliard
https://dominiquegilliard.com/2020/03/22/covid-19-prayer-calendars/