21 Days of Prayer Challenge - Day 1 - Obedience

Today begins day one of the 21 Days of prayer for our boys!  Whether you are a mom of a boy or a grandma praying for your grandsons, this will be a powerful tool for both you and those boys. 

To begin with I would like to share a little about myself so that you understand where my heart is and why I feel this is important.  I have two boys - one is 2 1/2 and the other is 1 1/2.  They are active, busy little boys!  My husband and I have been married almost 10 years and, when we got married were told more than once that we would never have children.  We had more than accepted that, actually, and were enjoying traveling, spoiling nieces and nephews, and pretty much doing what we wanted.  That all changed when we found out we were expecting - even the doctor was surprised (his words were" Wow, I guess that is just a reminder that I'm not God and He can do anything" LOL)   As I watch this two adorable little guys grow, I've been burdened with how I can do more to impact their heart - their spiritual well being - even at this very young age.  I get discouraged with what is offered in church for the little ones (yes, they can still learn songs and love hearing stories) but I also understand that the nursery workers rotate and no one is planning anything for that age.  Besides, in reality, the responsibility fully falls on our shoulders as their parents - no one else has that responsibility.  Someone had mentioned this book at a workshop I attended back in February - I wrote it down and put it on a list to do in the future but, when I saw the Challenge pop up, I felt God pulling my heart to do this now. 

How will this work?  As a leader, I will be posting daily - my goal is to have this post go up by 12:00 AM each morning.   That way, the challenge for the day is up and ready for you to read first thing.  I also have other posts that I do each day so if you happen to check in later, make sure you scroll down if needed to get to this post.  Within the daily challenge, I'll offer a little encouragement (hopefully it will encourage!), let you know what the challenge is and maybe offer a little more insight. 

I have decided not to do a linky party but will leave commenting totally up to you.  If you want the accountability, post a comment when you have finished the challenge; write a comment about how you are being impacted by this (because you realize that you will be impacted just as much as your boys will be, right?) or leave a comment talking about how your family is being impacted - what ever you are feel led to do is fine with me.  If you write a post about what you are doing, either mention that we should check out your post or live a link within your comment.  I will try to link those into the next days post too so that others can check out your blog as well and read your full post.  Make sure and check out the comments each day so you can read what others are doing as well! 

Now, on to day one and the first challenge (in the future, the posts will be smaller and too the point) - Obedience!!! (Don't we ALL want that from our kids???)

First, I want to share the section from the Leaders Guide where Brooke (the author) hands out some encouragement.  I was going to try and paraphrase it but she states it so well, I'm just going to copy her words here:

"I don’t think there is another issue in my parenting that causes me as much stress as getting my children to obey me. I know it’s a vitally important concept to teach them. In fact, I’ve heard it said that if a man can’t submit to Jesus, he will never be able to lead a woman (Tommy Nelson, Love & Romance Conference). No pressure, right moms?

Depending on what methods we use, we CAN make our sons obey. We can MAKE them obey us. But at the risk of sounding a little lazier than I really am as a parent I would submit this:

Obeying God is intimately linked to loving Him. If we focus too much on forcing our boys to change their outward behavior, and forget to hold out the great depth of love that sent a Savior to the cross, we’re running the risk of raising little Pharisees."

Today, I challenge you to commit to praying the ten prayers in the obedience chapter of the book during day one.  Here are some differant ways to incorrporate this challenge into your daily routine:

1. Get up early and bathe your sons in prayer first thing in the morning.

2. Pray the prayers one at a time throughout the day

3. Make the prayers a part of their family devotion time, praying the prayers out loud over your sons

4. Spend some time in concentrated prayer late at night, around bedtime.

If you are a mom whose boys have left home or a grandma whose grandsons don't live in your home, consider writing a note to send once a day with the prayers you have prayed for your sons/grandsons.  What an encouragement it would be to receive a note a day from mom (or grandma) with specific prayers. 

One last side note:  If you haven't purchased the Warrior Prayers book/ebooknecessisity - the main goal over the next 21 days is to just pray - so feel free to skip all of the reading and save it to focus on after the challenge!!)  I will be doing this right along with you so lets commit to pray also for each other over the next 21 days; I will be praying for each of you in this group as well.