Ministry of Motherhood Week 10

“Then, this, is how you should pray: Our Father, who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Matt 6:9-10

• Good Morning Girls Downloads for Week 10
• BlogFrog Discussion for Week 10

My Thoughts for the Week:

This week chapter’s 15 & 16 focus on training our children to pray effectively, and training for tribulation. Now, none of this is new to me, but really praying for God’s will to be done is a hard one. Mainly because I’m never sure what that entails! And its just so much easier to treat prayer like a list of needs, hoping God will fulfill our desires. But just as we must say no to our children sometimes, God does so to us as well! And isn’t it so much better for Him to be in control than us?

I love when Sally mentions that sometimes she says no to her children’s requests because they don’t fit into the plans that they have for the rest of the family! How true that is! And so when we pray, shouldn’t we want to pray for God’s will to be done, and not our list of worldly needs? I love the example of prayer Jesus gives us in Matthew 6:9-10! Jesus emphasized many times in scripture that we are to pray without ceasing! So all we need to do is model and pass that habit down to our children as well.

This is one area that we’re fairly good at. And if I forget, I find my kids reminding me! We even pray for good parking spots when we go shopping. And I can attest to the miracles of God on that one! When I was pregnant with our fourth baby, I’d fallen down and broken my foot. So there I was , 8 months pregnant, 3 kids in tow, with a cast going halfway up my right leg. People would stare at me with pity whenever we went anywhere! But I’ll tell you what, for the last 2 months of my pregnancy, we had pole-position for almost every store we went to! And frankly, finding pole-position parking on a Saturday at Wal-mart is a miracle in my book! Ha!

Now whenever we get good parking, I hear at least 2-3 “thank you Jesus!” coming from the back seat. I love it!

Now onto training for trials. This one wasn’t so much fun to think about. As a mother, I do my best to protect my kids from the bad things of the world, but its unrealistic to think that I can protect them from everything. And it was a nice reminder, that just as God is working in my life, so is He working in the lives of my children. Teaching them on their own level to trust in Him in all circumstances. It would be to their detriment if I were to interfere.

“A slave is not greater than his master. If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also.” John 15:20

Instead of trying to protect our children from trials, we can walk with them through the tribulations they will face in this world. We can teach them to trust in God in the midst of difficulties and also stand firm for Him and be a light to those around him. We may not understand why people do things they do, or make the choices they make. But we can control our own choices and actions. We might even lead someone to Christ by being a light in this world, as ‘love covers a multitude of sins.’ (1 Peter 4:8)

We can teach them to use the weapons provided to us by our heavenly Father – “prayer, the Word of God, faith, and the guidance of the Holy Spirit- then they, through the gift of training, will be prepared to battle in life for the glory of God with confidence and grace.” ~ Sally Clarkson

Make sure to hop over and join in on our Blog Frog discussions!

• Good Morning Girls Downloads for Week 10
• BlogFrog Discussion for Week 10

If you haven’t already, make sure to grab your copy of The Ministry of Motherhood! It’s definitely a book worth reading!