Birthday Gifts from God

In June, something dawned on me while praying for my daughter the morning of her 10th birthday. My prayer started by asking God to bless her, to do a work in her and to keep her safe. I prayed for her to grow in the beauty of the Lord etc...you know, what all Christian moms pray for their children. As I prayed, I began to ask God to give me a special verse for her that would be from Him as her birthday present from God. How cool to have your very own 'birthday word from the Lord'. He quickly laid something on my heart. I scribbled the verse down on a 3x5 card and woke her up with it saying, "Happy Birthday, here is your present from God." She was really excited about it. I explained how I came by knowing that and now she keeps the card in her Bible. The verse revealed to me something she is supposed to be doing as a believer and now we have focused our attention on that verse in our conversations and will continue to do so throughout the year and over her life.

I am so excited about the idea to follow this for all of my kids, through all of  their birthdays. I am going to have them memorize the verses that God gives me and my plan is to write a prayer/blessing surrounding this verse over each child for the year.  We will  keep each one in our Bible's to pray over our kids. One day, our kids will have a scrap book of all of their prayers/blessings that were spoken over them for an entire year.

Today was my son's birthday. I was excited to ask God what He had for him. The verse was not something I would have picked out, assuring me that this is not just a 'me' thing, but really of God. It actually was a stern warning. Wow, God loves us so very much, that even at the tender age of 8, the Lord desires for us to be Holy, set apart, saved to do the work of God and not the work of the flesh because He is jealous for our affection, even our son's and daughter's!

We will focus our prayer and discussion on this verse. Right before the verse, there was another one that spoke to me and my hubby. We saw our responsibility in bringing him up to be able to follow this command the Lord gave him. This has totally inspired me to an even deeper level of prayer for my kids.

If there is anything I can emphasize from this post, it is to urge you to talk to God about your kids with an abundant expectation of hearing from the Lord. It was never meant to be a one sided conversation. He speaks today, to us, about us, about our children. Getting away from the computer, the TV, the phone, our stresses and sitting before the Lord is the lifeline to bringing our kids into the Kingdom of Heaven with us.

If you haven't done this, sit with the Lord and ask Him. He really is waiting there, just waiting for us to ask for His guidance in our lives and our child's life. You know what? We need to do this for ourselves as well! Even for our friends. I am sure your friends and loved ones would be touched to know you took the time to ask God to give you something special for them on their special day. How much more should we take the time for our very own precious children?

I would love to hear from you. Is this something you would want to start doing or are you already doing it? If so, have you seen it making a difference in your child's heart? After all, that is what we are after...their heart. Don't be apathetic with their heart though, the enemy is after it as well and we must be diligent. Intentional parenting is not sitting around and hoping our kids turn out. It is putting a stake in the ground and saying..."As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."

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