Libros

TOPIC.- WHEN A MOTHER PRAYS.                  PROGRAM NO. 107 

Good morning welcome to the podcast “Radiant Women” I am the lawyer Leydi Campos who broadcasts live from Canada, our topic today is called “When a mother prays.”

BIBLE QUOTE – DEUTERONOMY 6:5 TO 7-  Says the word of God: “ And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength. And these words which I command this day shall be upon your heart, and you shall teach them to your children, and you shall talk of them when you are in your house, and when you walk by the pathway, and when your laying down, and when you get up.”

Let us pray.- Beloved Father we recognize that you are more powerful than any enemy and adversary who seeks to destroy Christ or his work, we ask this day that your Holy Spirit guide us and your grace sustain us in the name of Jesus, who alone is to be glorified, we thank you in his precious name. Amen.

In the context of this text: Our first commitment is to express our love for God without 0reservation, and in obedience to his word every day, since his law is written in our hearts, so we meditate on it constantly, and from the beginning of the day until the end, his commandments should be the topic of conversation with our children inside and outside the home.

Mothers are pulled in many directions and we need to set some priorities. Holly Elliff said, “make sure those priorities include prayer.”

 We could end up being the most organized mom, the best soccer mom in the class, the most efficient mom in every way, but we might discover too late that we traded eternal values for temporal ones.

Honestly, we MUST BE hungry to learn about God’s purpose for our lives as women, as wives and as mothers. Holly explains why mothers need God’s grace every day.

This is how I like to think about God’s grace. Paul said in Romans 5:1-2, “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through who also we have obtained entrance by faith into this grace in which we stand.”

The next time you are in a difficult time of parenting and of motherhood, remember that you are standing in the grace of God. You may not feel like you are standing in grace, but it is a promise from the Lord himself.

The enveloping presence of God’s grace enables us to stand and take the next step as parents so that we also have the grace we need for the next moment of our journey. Tomorrow we will again have what we need if we walk in the grace provided by God.

Holly gives us ten tips.

She was married for over 35 years. For 30 of those years, she had the privilege of following God’s call to raise her children for Christ. I assure you that they were not perfect parents and they do not have perfect children. However, we do know the One who is perfect and complete and lacks nothing. 

There is no magic formula for producing children who have a heart for God.

 A word here to mothers who may have a prodigal son right now. Perhaps you have a child who is breaking your heart. As we go through this list, don’t let the enemy condemn you, or put a burden on you that God did not intend, because God knows your heart. Even if you have been a faithful mother you may have a prodigal daughter or son. So, as we go through this list, go to the Lord for what you need to hear. Don’t let the enemy condemn you.

There is no magic formula for producing children who have a heart for God. However, I believe it is possible, by God’s grace, to cultivate an environment that fosters spiritual growth and fosters tender hearts so that our children will be more inclined to listen when the Lord calls them.

First: Model correct answers. As a speech pathologist, Holly was one before she had children. She knows from experience that if parents model speech for their children, then their children will speak earlier than usual and understand more of the language they are told.

Likewise, if we model saying, “please” to our children, they will probably say please, right? If we model for our children what God intends to make evident in our lives, our children will be quicker to realize that.

Deuteronomy 6, speaks of this. Live before your children in such a way that as you go along, as you wake up, as you lie down, as you walk, live in a way that pleases the Lord. Don’t forget these things. Don’t let them depart from your heart. Let your children and your grandchildren know them.

He goes on to say: “…these words which I command to you this day shall be upon your heart; and you shall teach them diligently unto your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the pathway, when you lay down, and when you get up” (see verses 6-7).

So, we must take advantage of teaching moments. These verses from Deuteronomy that we just read encourage us to teach on the road, all the time. Be intentional about your mothering.

We need to watch for the moments-some big, some small-when our children’s ears are ready to hear the truth. We might end up being the most organized mom, the best soccer mom in the class, the most efficient mom in every way, but we might discover too late that we trade temporal values for eternal ones.

Our children will determine their priorities based on what they have seen in our lives. If they see you taking the Bible, then that is a value they will absorb. If your Bible is on the shelf from Sunday to Sunday, they will notice that too.

There are truths we can teach when our children are ten years old that may not be heard when they are fifteen. Be intentional about what you teach.

Encourage your children to think, to talk about what they hear and read. Don’t expect their Sunday school teachers to do that.

Proverbs 1:7-9, reminds us:

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom;

fools do not appreciate wisdom and instruction.

Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction,

and do not abandon your mother’s teaching;

for they are a garland of grace for your head,

and necklaces for your neck”.

Our children’s responsibility is to listen, but our responsibility is to teach and to do so intentionally, whenever possible.

So, we must study our children. When the Bible speaks of children, it refers to them as olive plants (see Psalm 128: 3).

Olive plants should be planted separately from each other. They are totally separate and distinct plants. They are different from each other. They have to be treated differently.

Likewise, in families of any size, each child is unique. The Lord says that that child was created by Him, that He knew him before he was created, and God knows what that child needs. That is beautiful.

Create a home environment that is safe, warm and welcoming. Our children are never too old not to need affection.

God has given me grace to bond with my three children, we enjoy spending time talking about everything.

Every son needs a place where he can heal his wounds, where truth is available, where grace is evident.  “That there is no better place than home,” right? You must want your children to believe that there is no better place than home.

We need to know our children so that we can apply what we know about God to their present life circumstances.

Then keep them talking. Open and warm relationships are possible even during adolescence. The foundation for that kind of connection is laid long before hormones make life difficult. If you wait until they’re fifteen, you’re in trouble.

Openness and honesty should be essential family values in our homes. Teach your children, starting when they are young (or now, if you didn’t do it before), to talk about what worries them.

Talk to them, at the appropriate levels, about how to deal with their struggles, how you pray for other people, how you go to the Lord when you don’t know what to do, how you handle difficulties in your own life. They will learn by watching you and listening to you talk to them about these things.

Make mealtimes or car time very intentional. Ask your children questions.

Not everything has to be about serious matters. It can be things that are funny and silly. It can be things that just encourage conversation.

But if you start too early in their lives (or even if you start now), they’ll think you’re a little weird at first, but it’s never too late. Encourage open conversation, because the thing is, if they’re chatty when they’re younger, when they reach their teens, you’ll still be able to converse with them. They won’t be in a hurry to leave.

Encourage your children to speak up and be honest.

When Christ appointed the twelve, it was so that they would be with Him. He knew that He had only three years of ministry on earth.

We have our children for a very short, settled time. I know it seems long-especially if you have little ones-but seriously, it’s not long. It’s not a long time, and it will be the blink of an eye until they grow up.

We need to have the same relational intentionality in our time with our children as Christ had with his disciples. He knew how short time was. We don’t, but we must be intentional about time with our children.

Then, it balances truth and grace. Paul says, “…but speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all aspects into him who is the head, even Christ” (Eph. 4:15). As mothers, sometimes we have to grow up, don’t we?

Sometimes we need to “grow up” in Christ; but truth and love need to be balanced in our teaching and discipline so that we do not provoke our children to anger. Ephesians 6:4 warns us that this is important.

Love without truth encourages indulgence and selfishness. Truth without love promotes legalism and resentment.

It is very dangerous to have truth without love. You will have children who will leave when they reach adolescence, if all they have known is truth without being balanced by grace and love.

We must continually ask God to help us know how to maintain that balance. It is not always easy.

So, if God has given you a husband, many times our husbands are our contrast. Don’t tell your husband that he doesn’t know what he’s doing with regard to the children, because God put him there to help maintain that balance, that balance between truth and love.

If you are a single mom, I encourage you to find some godly people, friends at church, some family members who are godly. Ask them to help you stay balanced in your parenting. This is extremely important.

Learn to distinguish between rebellion and “kid stuff”. You heard the list at the beginning of all this teaching, right? There is a big difference between foolishness that is “bound up in the heart of a child”-because they are foolish and it says so in Proverbs 22:15-and willful disobedience.

Our kids are going to do crazy things because they are kids.

In our house we call these things CKS: Crazy Kid Stuff. CKS, while annoying, are not the same as willful disobedience.

Now, the second time our children disobey, after we have given them instructions, that would qualify as disobedience. So, while CKS needs intervention and training, disobedience needs correction. For example, if my son accidentally hits his brother because he is playing David and Goliath, and you give him instructions on how he should be careful and not endanger his brother, and he does it again and hits his brother again, that is already disobedience and needs correction.

Deliberate and intentional disobedience that goes uncorrected will turn into outright rebellion as the child enters his or her pre-teen years. We must learn early on to distinguish between mischief and rebellion.

Watch for a spirit of stubbornness in your child when he or she says, “I won’t do it”. When you see that, ask the Lord to give you discernment about the intention that child may have.

Ultimately, you must be the authority. If the issue is about who is in charge, you have to win, or dad has to win. Hebrews speaks to this when it says that discipline sometimes seems to cause sorrow, but in the end we are trained by it and it produces righteousness (see Hebrews 12:11).

So, we must teach them internal control versus external control. Proverbs talks about the importance of self-control in our children’s lives. 

“Like a city overrun and unwalled is a man who does not master his spirit” (Prov. 25:28). “Better is he that is slow to anger than he that is mighty, and he that rule his spirit than he that take a city” (Prov. 16:32).

As our children get older, they can control themselves more and more so that they learn the difference between internal control and external control.

When you say to a four-year-old, “I want you to sit on this stool,” he decides whether or not to sit on the stool. If he does it himself, that’s internal control; but if he doesn’t, then I have to help him sit on the stool, right?

Sometimes it can mean simply guiding you and sitting you on the bench. Sometimes it means doing something more serious…and you know what.

Teach your children the difference between internal control and external control. Even young children quickly realize that internal control will cost them less than external control.

Then, encourage children to live their age. We live in a culture that markets adult sensuality to young children.

It is important for our children to realize that if they are three years old, we want them to look, act and behave like three year olds. If they are fifteen, we want them to look, act and behave like a fifteen year old, and nothing less or more than that.

Paul said: “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (see Romans 12: 2). We need children who do not conform to the system.

Then guard their hearts. We must make sure that our children are saturated with God’s value system and not with the value system of this world. Sensuality and materialism are present in everything we see around us.

Proverbs 4:23 says: “With all diligence keep your heart, for out of it flow the springs of life”. We cannot be too cautious.

Encourage your children to come to you when they have questions about moral issues. Get to know who their friends are. Invite their friends to your home so you can watch for any signs that might tell you if there are problems.

Above all, listen to your children. Listen to what they think. Listen to what they are saying. Listen to what they are not saying. 

If they are under your authority you should check their computer. Check their emails. Check their Facebook page. Don’t be naive. We want to be wise women regarding our children. How many children and teenagers have not been badly influenced by social networks.

Also, be intentional in prayer. There are times in raising children when their needs are too great for us.

Sometimes we not only don’t have the answer, we can’t even identify the problem. Sometimes we just have to be grateful that God has given us access to His infinite wisdom.

Don’t stop praying for your children. How tragic it would be if your children had the right size tennis shoes, but not a praying mother!

In “Mujeres Radiantes” we have prayer groups for our children, online, very early, from Monday to Friday, as there are different countries, some have to get up earlier than others, but it is the grace of Christ and the love for our children that drives us to make this sacrifice and to have this discipline.

Treat your kids like you’re not going to have them next year. Train your children as if you’re not going to have them next year. Ask yourself, “Am I being intentional about training my children for Christ?”

Identify the areas of training that you know need attention in your home. Take those things to the Lord, one at a time in prayer, and then write down what God is prompting your heart to change regarding your children.

I encourage you as women today, and we will conclude here, that God calls women to, like Hannah, embrace the gift of children; to consecrate their children to God for His kingdom purposes; to be courageous enough to live counter-cultural lives.

If you love your children and raise them for Christ, you will be rare. You won’t look like the rest of the women around you, and that’s the way it should be if we are called by God-women who understand the calling God has given us to care for and train our children.

But our calling does not end there, because we must care for and train our own children, but then we must turn around to those behind us and help them care for and train their children, so that their children can care for and train future children. You qualify with hits and misses. In Psalm 78:4 4 to 7,

“We will not hide it from their children, but will tell to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, and His power, and the wonderful works which He has done. For He established a testimony in Jacob, and set a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers to teach their children; that the generation to come might know it, even the children to be born; and they should arise and tell it to their children, that they might put their trust in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments.”

I bid you farewell, wishing you a blessed week, see you soon. This program was translated by Andrea Calixto Alvarez.

“Mujeres Radiantes ” is an outreach ministry of “Leydi Campos Canadian Women Foundation. Inc.”