Warrior Prayers - Day 14

21 Days of Prayer for our Sons…

Today’s Prayer is on GOODNESS…

We are still praying for the “fruit of the Spirit” to be evident in our sons! (There are a lot of them!)

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, GOODNESS, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, against such there is no law.” – Galatians 5:22

What makes someone “good?” Is it an action or is it an “overflow of the heart?” We can do GOOD things but have a bad attitude while doing them. As we raise our children, are we teaching them that if they DO good things then they are GOOD? If we teach them that being good is all it takes, if our discipline and training only focuses on our behavior, how will they know they need a Savior?

Brooke states in the Leader’s Guide:

“I believed that if I did good things, it made me god. Actually, it’s probably closer to the truth to say I believed that if I didn’t do bad things, then I wasn’t bad. I didn’t know that no one is good. I didn’t really understand that everyone sins. And I didn’t understand the depth of my own sin until the Lord showed it to me.

So…are we raising little Pharisees? Or are we raising Godly men with a heart for God? If a Godly son is your goal, you must aim for the HEART. Because unless the heart is changed—touched—the behavior will stay the same. It might look a little different, morph some as they grow. But behavior is always a symptom of the state of the HEART. What’s in the heart eventually comes out!

“Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.” – Matthew 12:34

Ask yourself these questions:

What parenting tools have I been using that only focus on changing behavior and not the heart? Am I willing to lay them down even if they produce what looks like a good child?

Reaching a child’s heart takes time. Behavior modification is much faster! Am I willing to change things about my life so that I have the time to invest in the hearts of my children?

Most importantly, am I willing to submit my own heart to God and allow Him to mold me from the inside out?

Shepherding our boys is not for the faint of hearts, my friend!

So what keeps me going?

I want their hearts!

Just like my Heavenly Father wants mine!

Today’s verses are:

1 Kings 8:66

Psalm 23:6

Psalm 25:7

Psalm 27:13

Psalm 31:19

Psalm 65:4

Hebrews 6:5

Genesis 2:18

Deuteronomy 6:18

Deuteronomy 26:11

Praying for heart change,

Kim