What’s a Mother to Do?

No matter your domestic status, all mothers face some of the same challenges when it comes to spending real time and energy praying and it often seems impossible. So what is a mother do when it comes to prayer and intercession?

At the outset, please know that the cause of prayer desperately needs a mother’s touch. The empathy and unconditional love that soothes and comforts is the perfect model for reaching a lost world. Finding a way to transfer these motherly feelings and compassionate praying is the struggle.

Prayer is not only for gifted intercessors, you know.  Your involvement is closer than you think. Look no further than your front yard, dinner table or the little pair of socks that missed the hamper. The love and empathy that you model to your children will have an impact on this world. The example you make through prayer and the involvement of your children will reach further than your wildest dreams.

It will cost you a little time, a little energy, and a whole lot of modeling a concern for others. Getting you and your children involved on this level is a lot like planting a crop on a farm. You plant the ideas and importance of prayer into the fallow ground of your children. And if the ground isn’t fallow (broken up) then dig around until good ground is cultivated, paying attention to all the details that make your children who they are.  Bring in a little “Miracle Grow” by sprinkling them on a regular basis with God’s Word, and water them with tears prayed for others in their presence, not neglecting prayer for them.

Following are a few creative suggestions to get you started.

Prayer Trophies: We like to see results quickly when we pray, don’t we? One way to have a visual reminder of your prayer time is to light a candle at the start of each prayer time using a small votive candle in a unique holder of some kind. Blow the candle out whenever you stop praying. The empty votive holders become trophies of time spent in prayer and can be displayed somewhere in your home. Use this concept for personal prayer time and even start a candle for family prayer times. Most candles have an average burn time on them that will give you an estimate of how many hours you’ve spent in prayer

 Chore Topics: As you do your daily chores, select related prayer topics for each chore. Train your children to do the same. What are your ideas for related prayer topics of the following chores:

      Laundry = ______________________________
      Dishes = ________________________________
      Making the Bed = _________________________
      Floors = ________________________________
      Picking up toys = _________________________
      Cooking dinner = _________________________