Section #4: Daily Prayers

So now we get to the part that usually comes most naturally to us in prayer: asking for what we want and need.  Daily I pray for myself, my husband, and my children.  But, I was finding myself repeating many of the same prayers.  I would pray for my husband to be a good leader at work and a good father at home.  I would pray for my kids to surrender their lives to Jesus and lives wholeheartedly for Him.  Great prayers.  But I knew there was more…I just couldn’t think it up on the spot!  Occasionally situations would arise during the day that would trigger specific prayers, but I wanted to really cover my loves in prayers for every aspect of their lives.

I love Stormie Omartian’s “The Power of a Praying” books.  If you aren’t familiar with these, check them out from your library or just take the plunge and order them on Amazon right now.  They are worth every penny!  She takes you through 31 prayers to pray for yourself, your husband, your children, your grandchildren, etc. Using her books as a guide, I came up with 31 short prayer prompts to remind me of things to pray for in order to cover my family in prayer.  

For the purposes of a published prayer binder, I can’t post my specific prompts in order to be fair to Stormie.  But feel free to write your own prompts, or use a Bible concordance, Stormie’s books, or other resources for ideas!  Depending on your situation, your family’s needs will be different.  But spend some time thinking this through.  I loved spending some time on the front end thinking through a vision for what the Lord wants from me and my family, and the kind of people He wants us to become.  That vision was the starting point for my prayers.

I also have specific pages for me, my husband, and each of my children where I record my specific requests, and the Lord’s answers as they occur.  These pages I change out every few months and file the old ones as a record of the Lord’s faithfulness for future generations.  I also claim a Scripture verse for each of us and pray that aloud.  I chose a verse for each of my children when they were very small and I continue to claim that same promise for them.  For me and my husband, my verses change based on our current challenges.  The Word of the Lord is powerful and effective, and never returns void!  

We are never just coasting through life.  We are always moving closer to God or farther from Him.  We are moving closer to our spouse, or drifting apart.  There’s no such thing as a steady “float.”  Prayer is a great way to keep focused on what really matters—becoming more like Jesus.  Use your daily prayers to continually surrender your life to the Lord’s plan (it’s way better than anything we can come up with anyway!) and to refocus yourself on your family’s character over its circumstances.