{"id":8952,"date":"2012-04-23T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-04-23T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites-stage.familylife.com\/flministries\/?p=8952"},"modified":"2012-04-23T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-04-23T00:00:00","slug":"how-to-pray-big-for-your-child","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/articles\/topics\/parenting\/essentials\/praying-for-your-children\/how-to-pray-big-for-your-child\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Pray Big for Your Child"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Mariah approached the beginning of middle school as a happy, normal sixth grader.\u00a0She was a good student, she would be attending her neighborhood school with her best girlfriends, and she was excited about the new adventure.\u00a0But that all changed on the first day of school.<\/p>\n

Mariah basically experienced the equivalent of a panic attack.\u00a0She started crying uncontrollably and inconsolably.\u00a0Tragically, the scene was repeated almost every day of that school year.\u00a0Her mother would drive her to school but was often unable to get Mariah out of the car.\u00a0Other days, Mariah would make a brave attempt to face her school fears, only to spend most of the day in the counselor\u2019s office or crying at her desk.\u00a0Her new adventure had turned into a nightmare.<\/p>\n

During that time, Mariah\u2019s parents did everything they could to help her.\u00a0They prayed for her and with her.\u00a0She started seeing a professional Christian counselor, and her school counselor worked with her every day.\u00a0She also started taking antidepressants.<\/p>\n

The next year, as Mariah was about to enter seventh grade, she and her parents agreed that she would try a new school.\u00a0It was a Christian school with a great reputation.\u00a0Things started off smoothly enough for Mariah, but within just a few weeks, the panic attacks were back.<\/p>\n

Mariah bottomed out in the late fall of her seventh grade year.\u00a0Her mother, Kathleen, wrote, \u201cIt was the most gut-wrenching thing I\u2019ve ever experienced, watching my child just try to slog through such misery.\u00a0She was crying out to God.\u00a0She was begging me for help. … It\u2019s so hard to convey how severe this was.\u00a0I\u2019m not talking about a bratty kid crying and refusing to get out of the car.\u00a0I\u2019m talking about true hysterics, rocking, making guttural sounds, etc.\u201d<\/p>\n

Things were so bad that Kathleen and her husband drove Mariah to a local psychiatric hospital.\u00a0They basically told Mariah that if she couldn\u2019t gain control of her fears, they would have to hospitalize her.\u00a0It wasn\u2019t a threat; these Christian parents really didn\u2019t know how to help their daughter.\u00a0The drugs, therapy, and prayers didn\u2019t seem to be working.<\/p>\n

Mariah reluctantly agreed to give school another try.\u00a0Kathleen remembers dropping her off and watching her frightened but determined seventh grader weeping as she disappeared through the school\u2019s doors.<\/p>\n

Kathleen wrote, \u201cI got in my car and started sobbing, and then I prayed for her like I had done every other day.\u00a0I was praying things like, \u2018O God, please help Mariah.\u00a0Please, please, please.\u00a0God, I know you hear her crying out to you.\u00a0Why won\u2019t you help her?\u00a0Please just help her put one foot in front of the other and make it through the day.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

And then it happened.\u00a0Kathleen had a breakthrough.\u00a0As she sat in her car, praying for God to help Mariah survive the day, she clearly heard God say, \u201cIs that really all you want from me?\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a really good question, isn\u2019t it?\u00a0How many times have you gone to God in a moment of parental desperation and pleaded for mere survival?\u00a0How often are we as Christian parents guilty of not asking for God\u2019s best provision but simply His bare minimum?\u00a0How quickly do we forget while in our foxhole praying that Jesus promised abundant life to His children?<\/p>\n

Have you ever heard the Holy Spirit say, \u201cIs that really what you want from me?\u201d in response to your prayers?<\/p>\n

Kathleen felt the gentle rebuke in the Spirit\u2019s question and decided to go for broke.\u00a0She wrote, \u201cSo I just unleashed.\u00a0I said, \u2018No, that\u2019s not all I want!\u00a0I want Mariah to be great, not good!\u00a0I want Mariah to be blessed!\u00a0I want everyone who knows her to know that Your hand is on her.\u00a0I want everyone who meets my child to know that God has blessed her.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s exactly what God did.\u00a0Mariah didn\u2019t just survive that day, she actually enjoyed it.\u00a0She was great, not just good.\u00a0And she\u2019s been great just about every day since.\u00a0Today Mariah is a happy teenager who is excelling in school.\u00a0She has friends, dances on the drill team, makes good grades, and serves in her church.\u00a0And she\u2019s completely off the antidepressants.<\/p>\n

Mariah is prevailing, not just surviving, because her mother obeyed the leading of God\u2019s Spirit and dared to ask for something big from God.<\/p>\n

Pinpoint praying versus no-point praying<\/strong><\/h5>\n

How many times have you settled for the \u201cLord, just help my child to survive\u201d kind of praying that Kathleen did?\u00a0How often have you mumbled some weak, pathetic prayer in hopes that God would help you or your child just to get by?\u00a0Have you ever thought about that?\u00a0Have you ever thought about how ridiculously low we set the bar when it comes to praying for our kids?<\/p>\n

One would think that we were dealing with the little man behind the curtain who pretends to be the great Wizard of Oz, instead of with the holy and creating God of the universe.\u00a0Why do we frequently ask so little of God when it comes to our kids?<\/p>\n

Perhaps you\u2019ve prayed one of the following prayers:<\/p>\n