Praying Mightily For The Little Ones

"These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. ⁷ Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up." Deuteronomy 6:6-7

I was a bad mom last night.

Abigail has not been sleeping very well as of late, and she's driving me batty with her behavior about it. Firstly, she simply won't tell me why she's having trouble sleeping. And secondly, she actually is sleeping, but then she wakes up, comes and finds me, and then complains that she can't sleep. This week, she's also got the added cold that I have. So last night, when all I want is to crawl into bed and go to sleep, she walks into our bedroom, sniffling, saying that she can't sleep. Meanwhile, we just checked on her, and she was indeed snoring, but for some reason, she woke and got all cranky. I went and laid down with her for a while, and she was mostly asleep, when she started sniffling a little bit and then complained about her nose running. I was at my end last night, so I simply went and got her an antihistamine and had her take that. It did work,and she slept the rest of the night, but this morning... I'm feeling like a bad mom. Like I simply drugged my daughter so that I could selfishly get some rest, rather than explore the real reasons for her lack of sleep.

"But from everlasting to everlasting
the LORD's love is with those who fear him,
and his righteousness with their children's children-

¹⁸ with those who keep his covenant
and remember to obey his precepts." Psalm 103:17-18

So this morning, I go to wake her up, and as I walk into her room, it just hit me like a ton of bricks, that I needed to spend some time praying for my children. I do it quite often, of course. In fact, some days I think all I do is pray for my children. But I really feel like I need to do some serious intercession and prayer for my little girl. She has about six weeks of school left before she comes home for the summer, and then we tackle homeschooling. But until then, that's a whole lot of time that the devil is going to be working overtime to try and snag my little beauty. And wouldn't it be easier for her to be swayed if she hasn't gotten enough rest and is a little on edge to begin with?

"If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!" Luke 11:13

I have found, over the last six months or so, that when Andy and I are spending more time in God's Word, and more time focused on God, that's when things try to go awry. The kids sleep poorly, sickness comes into the house, my neck spasms and goes stiff, outside family and friend issues get overwhelming, and I could go on and on. When I take a step back, or when I look back, I can see clear as day that all those things are the enemy trying to come against what we are trying to do. And getting short with my daughter about her sleeping badly is letting the enemy win, even a little bit. And I refuse to let that happen any longer.

A few months ago, we had similar sleep issues with Zander, except he was having nightmares. I would lie with him every night until he fell asleep, and he would wake up crying for Mommy, it was heartbreaking. This went on for a few nights before the light dawned, and right there and then, I prayed for Zander and for his sleep. That he would have wonderful dreams- and I prayed all this with Zander, and that very night, he slept well and the nightmares were gone. I need to do the same for Abigail, because as I'm writing this, it occurs to me that this week at school is tornado safety week. Why do they do that? We finally get over the trauma of fire safety week from the beginning of the year when they terrify the children all over again with "death by tornado."

Thank God that next year, that won't be an issue.

So I'm posting this whole thing today as a reminder. As a reminder to myself and a reminder to other parents that praying for our children is so, so important. It may seem trivial, and you may be like me, where you say that you do pray for your kids everyday. But some days, you need more than just the normal prayers. Some times, you need to spend some time really talking to God about your children. Today, I am going to spend some time talking to God while I give my daughters room a quick cleaning. She'll so appreciate coming home from school to find a clean bedroom. And while I clean, I'll put in a great inspirational CD and just fill her room with love and with God. And may God give her some beautiful sleep, and continue to show me where I could be doing better as a mom, because there's always room for improvement.