Ever had one of those days you tune out your own voice? All the nagging and correcting…over and over. Wah wa wahhh wah wa wah wah…

Most of the time I have the right motivation…to raise godly men, who honor others, obey and love God.

But lots of words doesn’t change hearts I’ve discovered. A stubborn spirit won’t crack after sitting in time out all day.

A few years ago after a long day home with the boys I called my friend/boymom mentor Leslie asking for wisdom. She reminded me to “say less, pray more” (read more of that story here).

Does it sound crazy that I feel more in control when I say things like, “Don’t swing that plastic snake or you will hurt your brother”? Somehow by declaring the potential catastrophe I’ve done my job. That when someone gets hurt (as they always do when a plastic snake is around) I gave it my best shot to keep everyone safe.

I know my primary job as a mom is to love my boys and keep them safe.

But when God gave me four boys. yes, four (wow, that’s a lot of boys), I felt my job description grew exponentially. Because these boys will (hopefully) be four future husbands, fathers, employees, leaders.

I not only want them to be safe…but brave, honest, loving, wise, patient, kind, adventurous...the list goes on and on.

I once heard Beth Moore say to pray your children will “hunger & thirst for righteousness” and all other qualities and morals will fall under that request.

Because if they seek to be right with God then they won’t desire their own way over His, they won’t bow down to idols of greed or power, and they will want to love others well like God loved us.

Beth’s right about praying. Because only God can change hearts. In fact it’s the verses Ezekiel 36:26-27 that motivated my friend, Brooke McGothlin, to write a book specifically directed to praying for boys.

I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you.  And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

Her book is called, Praying for Boys: Asking God for the Things They Need Most

 (click the title to get a copy…Amazon affiliate link)
…pretty awesome, huh?

Isn’t prayer the the ultimate way to #LiveByFaith?

“Prayer honors God, acknowledges His being, exalts His power, adores His providence, secures His aid.”           ~E.M. Bounds

I recently read a post where the author said she didn’t believe in the power of prayer, that there wasn’t inherent power in prayer.

My view is the power of prayer comes in the faith it takes to verbalize your needs and present them to an all-capable, all-loving, all-mighty God.  It takes faith to pray. 

Jesus noted that he worked in towns where there was faith. The bleeding woman was healed because of her faith.

If we believe God desires the hearts of our boys to be turned towards him, then in faith we pray for our boys.

“It matters little what form of prayer we adopt or how many words we use, what matters is the faith which lays hold on God and touches the heart of the Father who knew us long before we came to Him.” ~Dietrich Bonhoeffer

I love Brooke’s book “Praying for Boys” because of the 21 chapters directed towards specific areas to pray for my boys…from obedience to honor to pride to each of the fruit of the Spirit to having a servant’s heart.

For each chapter she shares a personal story with her boys and lists at least 10 prayers you can personalize for your son based from Scripture. So there are over 200 prayers already written out for you (and your boys!)!

Here are some examples from the book:

• May Quade go out with joy and be led forth in peace (Isaiah 55:12).
• May Price hear Your words, God, and do them, like the wise man who built his house upon the rock (Matthew 7:24).
• Lord, may Watts take Your yoke upon him and learn from You, for You are gentle and lowly in heart; then Watts will find rest for his soul (Matthew 11:29).
• May Knox be saved by grace through faith–not of his own doing, but by Your gift (Ephesians 2:8).
  

Love these nuts…and honored to join God in helping them be the men God created them to be!

Will you join me in praying? To practically #livebyfaith? Do you have a verse you regularly pray over your children? Pretty please, would you share it in the comments?

More info on Brooke…

Brooke McGlothlin is Co-founder of Raising Boys Media, where moms and dads come to discover delight in the chaos of raising boys. You can find her writing about fighting for the hearts of her sons at the MOB Society blog, or living a life in pursuit of Jesus at her personal blog www.brookemcglothlin.com. A normal day finds Brooke homeschooling her two boys, wrangling two large Labs, Toby and Siri, writing to bring hope to the messes of life (in the midst of her own messy life), and falling more and more in love with the man she’s had a crush on since the third grade (who just happens to be her husband).

What Brooke hopes the readers of Praying For Boys gain from experiencing the book…

I wrote Praying for Boys because I truly believe we can change the world if we pray for our sons. My greatest hope for moms who read it is to inspire them to trust God with their boys, get into His Word and find out what it has to say about raising boys, and inspire a generation of moms to get on their knees, partnering with God for the hearts of their sons.–Brooke McGothlin