A Prayer for Fathers

After a particularly challenging week, I let myself get pushed to frustrated tears again tonight. And the funny thing is, I think I am about ready to start my period. But then, God has a funny way of using seemingly uncontrollable things such as hormones to bring me to prayer.

I took a timeout on the back porch and brought my Bible and a book called The Power of a Praying Wife. The next chapter I turned to was on Fatherhood. It was so timely, especially with Father's Day coming up, so I thought I would write Stormie Omartian's prayer here and claim it as my own prayer for my husband.

"Lord, teach Jason to be a good father. Where it was not modeled to him according to Your ways, heal those areas and help him to forgive his dad. Give him revelation of You and a hunger in his heart to really know You as his heavenly Father. Draw him close to spend time in Your presence so he can become more like You, and fully understand Your Father's heart of compassion and love toward him. Grow that same heart in him for his child. Help him to balance mercy, judgment, and instruction the way You do. Though You require obedience, You are quick to acknowledge a repentant heart. Make him that way , too. Show him when to discipline and how. Help him to see that he who loves his child disciplines him promptly (Proverbs 13:24). May he never provoke his "children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord" (Ephesians 6:4). I pray we will be in full agreement as to how he is raised. I pray that there will be no strife or argument over how to handle him and the issues that surround our child's life.

Give Jason skills of communication with his child. I pray he will not be stern, hard, cruel, cold, abusive, non communicative, passive, critical, weak, uninterested, neglectful, undependable or uninvolved. Help him instead to be kind, loving, softhearted, warm, interested, affirming, affectionate, involved, strong, consistent, dependable, verbally communicative, understanding and patient. May he require and inspire his child to honor him as his father so that their lives will be long and blessed.

Lord, I know we pass a spiritual inheritance to our children. Let the heritage he passes on be rich in the fullness of Your Holy Spirit. Enable him to model clearly a walk of submission to Your laws. May he delight in his child and long to grow him up Your way. Being a good father is something he wants very much. I pray that You would give him the desire of his heart."

Consequences of Discipline

I've been having a time lately with Ezra. Not any one thing major, but sometimes he has the attitude of a teenager with the way he questions me (not the curious kind of questions, but the authority challenging kind) and the way he tries to talk himself out of doing what I ask him to do.

Anyway, tonight, I gave him a spanking for some backtalk. After our bedtime ritual of toothbrushing, reading and snuggling, I brought up the incident again. I asked him if he understood why he got a spanking. He said, yes he did.

I told him that I don't like to spank him but I want him to grow up respecting adults and those in charge.

Then he said, "That's okay, Mommy. Cause you know what's going to happen every time you give me a spanking?" And then he sat up in bed and moved closer to me. I didn't know what he was going to do!

"This is what's going to happen" and with that he leaned in and kissed me on the cheek. Then I realized that Ezra knows that we love him so much. That floored me.

If only I were that trusting and loving to God when I feel disciplined by Him! No guilt, no grudges, just simple trust and moving forward in sweetness.

Test of faith

The first of the month has historically been a tight one, and April is no exception. With our tax refund, we paid the remainder of our car payment and a good hunk of our credit card (computer). We also switched to Bellsouth bundling and dropped Charter and are saving $50 a month.

Even so, this month is tight and this week I had the choice of writing our tithe check or having grocery money. So, against all common sense (according to the world), I wrote the check out on Friday, trusting God to provide since it's a long time until our next payday. Plus I had a "backup" in the form of our savings account (set up for a really rainy day).

Well, on Saturday morning, we received a reward check from Bellsouth (since we switched to DSL). And on Saturday evening, we got a phone call from our Iwanna ad about Ezra's train table. The family came and picked it up right after church today.

God constantly reminds me that He will take care of us if we obey and trust in Him. Some days I forget that. And some days I doubt - hence my backup. Even in my partial trust, God has blessed me by reminding me that money is in His control as much as the rain or the rotation of the earth. Money is nothing to trust in. God is the only constant in my life.