Praying Parent Week 1.2

This is my second attempt at working and praying my way through O'Martian's Power of a Praying Parent and the study/prayer guide.  The title for Week 1 is "Becoming a Praying Parent," and it really asks you to step back and take a look at the ways in which you currently pray.  There are 6 sections within this chapter, which are followed by a sample prayer and Weapons of Warfare.  Weapons of Warfare are verses taken from different books in the Bible that may be beneficial and apply to the areas for which you are praying.  The following are the headings for each section in Week 1:

• What Is Prayer and How Does it Work?
• Begin With a Personalized List
• God's Word as Your Weapon
• A Good Example of Answered Prayer
• When the Answers Don't Come
• I Said "Praying," Not "Perfect"

O'Martian also asks you to keep your eyes and heart open to the scripture and to make note of anything that might apply to an area you are covering in prayer, whether for your children or any other area of your life that needs God's intervention.  Sometimes we get stuck in a prayer rut and find ourselves praying the same obligatory thank yous and pleases.  While it is good to always thank God for his goodness and mercy, we need to make our prayers more personal and put a little more thought into it.  I believe that Aibileen from The Help must have been retroactively inspired by O'Martian's approach to writing prayer.  Aibileen states that her prayers seem clearer and seem to work better when she writes them out. 

You see, actually committing something to paper (or a computer document) means that you had to think about it.  It means that you didn't just close your eyes and say, "God, thank you for everything you've done for me my whole life.  Watch over the sick, lost, and destitute.  Please wake me up in the morning. Amen."  Writing your prayers down gives them importance for a few reasons:  you took time to think about what you wanted to say to God, you deviated from your normal prayer routine, and you opened a conversation with God.  Prayer should be more of a conversation, a give and take.  You have to listen as much, or more, than you talk.  I'm still working on this part.

In fact, the night after I reread Week 1 and wrote out my prayers - saying them mentally as I wrote, I had a strange occurrence.  It was 1am when I finally laid down, because my son had woken up and it is difficult to hold a baby, keep him asleep, and write prayers at the same time - in other words, it took me a while!  I had not even gotten to a point where I was dreaming, so I don't have a memory of any figure.  It was close to 1:30, and I heard a voice say my name.  Mind you this has happened many times before, but I could never identify it as male/female or tell you anything about it.  This time, it was definitely male, loud to the point of being painful to my ears, and very forceful.  It was one word, Amanda, and it woke me from a dead sleep.  At first I thought my brother was in my bedroom trying to wake me, because it sounded like his voice.  Our mother has been sick, and it scared me to think that she might possibly be more ill and needing me.  Then I thought maybe he needed me for something.  He is in a new relationship, and he travels frequently to spend time with his girlfriend.  My heart was racing, and I was unable to go back to sleep for quite some time.  I strained my ears to hear if someone was prowling around our house. 

I asked my brother about it in the morning, and he said everything was fine.  My mother was hospitalized that day, but the more I thought about the voice, the more I was led to one conclusion.  It scared me to the point I was shaking - what if the voice was God trying to get my attention?  Was God talking to me as he talked to young Samuel?  Samuel thought it was Eli calling him in the middle of the night.  I decided that if it was God, I would be ready should He try to gain my attention again.  I am still waiting!

Here are the prayers I wrote the night I heard "The Voice."  You can see the prompts for these prayers in my previous post Praying Parent Week 1.1. 

10. God, you have witnessed each situation in which my anger and quick temper have been allowed to control me.  I yell, and I sometimes lash out physically.  Mostly I try to intimidate children I should be protecting and exposing to greater love and a much better example of controlling one's anger.  Lord, I ask you to help me to be slow to anger and not to provoke my children.  Show me an outlet for my anger and a way to control it rather than being controlled by it.

12.  Father God, I want to be a steward to my children:  A steward of peace, love, calmness, understanding, protection, and proactive rather than reactive responding.  Help me to build my children up instead of tearing them down.  Show me a way to find solutions rather than complaining about the problem.  Guide me to be a better parent.

14.  Lord, help me to use Christ as my guide.  Let me walk in His Spirit rather than in the flesh and worldly things.  I want to be freed from self condemnation and judgment from others.

15.  God, put your whole armor on me that I may be able to withstand and disregard principalities, powers, rulers of darkness and spiritual wickedness in this world.  Help me to discern between your desires for me and my children and the imposed desires of the flesh.

19.  Lord, I love my children from the depths of my heart and soul, yet I know it is not enough.  I need to love them with Your love, God.  Only you possess a truly unconditional love.  God, help me to love my children so completely that even when I err as a parent they will feel my love and it will heal them.  Fill me with Your love, Lord, so I may cover my children.