Upside-down Prayers

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What I have desired for my two boys has changed dramatically since they were little.  When they were babies I would wake in the middle of the night and check their breathing.  One of my little guys would spit up constantly even in his sleep. I feared that one night he would choke to death.  My concern was for their safety...their well-being. Over time I have come to realize that while prayers for their safety are an important part of serving our kids there are some prayers that are far more important.  I have been praying that they follow hard after God. Nothing else matters.

I had wanted a life free of pain.  A perfect family. Success around every corner.  But as the years have flown by I have realized that God is shaping me and giving me "less than perfect".  He shapes His clay in the darkness.  I have not grown leaps and bounds during the highs of life, during the great successes, during the joys.  I have only been molded in the dark.  My transformation has come in the hardest times: the abuse, the losses, the rejection from others.  It is there that the Potter shows up to shape a bit more.

And so it is with everyone, God labors during the night to form us into an image...one that more closely resembles His Son. It will be the same for my boys.  It is through the trials of life that they will grow to be more like Him.  So when I came across  Upside-Down Prayers for Parents: Thirty-One Daring Devotions for Entrusting Your Child--and Yourself--to God, I realized that these needed to be my prayers.  Here is just a sampling of some of the prayers:

I pray you'll get caught doing things wrong-and find the good and true path.

I pray you'll have to forgive someone who doesn't deserve it-and find the peace that forgiveness brings.

I pray you'll encounter battles-and find God is your greatest ally.

I pray you'll experience unanswered prayers-and develop deeper, wider trust.

After each prayer is a verse, a devotional, and then questions to ponder.  These prayers aren't for the faint of heart.  Some of them I almost don't want to pray for my kids.  Yet, I know that in the long run “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,” (Acts 14:22).  In order for my kids to follow hard after God they need hardship.  They need some darkness to be His light.