Pray for Your Children

Pray for your children. Do you want the best for your children? Pray for them. Do you want God’s best for them? Pray for them. My bride and I have prayed for God’s desires to come true in our children’s lives since the day they were born. It has not always been easy to set our desires aside and seek God’s desires, instead, but it is a practice in which we have found ourselves for over three decades. We prayed for their health and welfare, and for their future spouses. We made it a practice early on to pray these prayers. In this article, I am going to primarily concentrate on our prayers for our sons’ future spouses.

Our youngest son was born in 1994. He is an incredibly caring young man and has always been impressive. (We almost lost him in utero, but that is a different story of God’s grace and deliverance.) He found his wife in college and has been married almost eight years, now. They first met in class at Jacksonville State University, our alma mater. (Go Gamecocks!) He never dated much, but I remember the night he came home and told us he thought he may have met the girl he was going to marry. That was a bold statement. We were a bit surprised, and I can honestly write that he never relented. He believed she was the one. We were impressed.

When our dog had puppies, our son invited this young lady and her best friend to come see them. They came to our home, were mesmerized by the puppies, and we began to see the glimmer we had thought might only be in his eye was in her eye, as well. A few weeks later, we invited her to our home for dinner…without the friend. She accepted, they began to date, and eventually married. Why were we surprised? We had prayed to God for her, whoever she may have been, since our little boy was born.

Our oldest son was born in 1991. He is an adventurous, loving person. He, like our youngest, is an impressive person. We also prayed for him to find the woman God intended. (God took His time with this one.) Like our youngest son, our oldest dated sporadically, but no particular young lady stood out in his life. As our son turned thirty years old, we began to wonder if God had intended him to remain unmarried, having a special plan for his life that involved singleness. We began to accept that if this was God’s intention, His best for our son, we would praise Him for it.

Now, our oldest son is a drummer. He met a wonderful young lady at his church. She was singing in the praise team, and he was beginning to play with them, as well. She worked as volunteer in the children’s ministry, and he volunteered in the student ministry. They began “hanging out” with other young adults as they went to Top Golf, viewed Christmas lights, and ate at restaurants, all while declaring they were not dating. Really? Their friends, their siblings, and (as we later found out), both sets of parents thought differently. It was obvious to everyone around them that they were dating, admittedly or not! Under a good amount of pressure from many people, our son mustered the courage. Finally, he asked her out and she agreed to date him. A giant sigh of relief and joy occurred from everyone within their familial and social circles.

On August twenty-fifth of this year, I had the privilege of performing the marriage of my oldest son. I had already experienced this same joy in 2016 with my youngest son. God’s best, God’s plan for both our sons came to fruition. Our prayers were answered in God’s time and in God’s way. We are all blessed beyond measure. All our children, our sons and daughters-in-love, are actively serving in various positions within their churches. It amazes me to realize we have been privileged to pray for these four adults their entire lives. Although we met the two ladies later in their lives, God allowed us to pray for them. We are blessed, and others are being blessed by their ministry through their churches.

Our youngest son has three children. I have written about them before. As we met each of them, we began to pray for them and for God’s best in their lives. We pray that they will come to know the Lord through faith in Jesus Christ. We pray for their health and welfare, and we pray for their future spouses. God has already answered one of our prayers. On September third of this year, I was privileged to baptize our oldest grandchild, our grandson, after he proclaimed his faith in Jesus. We are amazed by God’s grace.

Pray for your children. God has plans for them. Practice your faith before their eyes. Let them know you pray for them and seek God’s best for them. They are your blessings. Praise God!

GARRETT FAMILY

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