Praying for Your Children (Part 3)

Praying for my family daily has been enhanced greatly by praying through the acronym F.A.M.I.L.Y. Last night I was in Roanoke, VA, and went to bed exhausted after a full day of ministry. Around 4 AM I awakened; I was only half conscious, but I found myself praying for my family using this simple acronym. It has become something I do subconsciously at times.

If you read my previous two blogs, you will recall the following prayer points:

F = Faithful and Fruitful

A = Active in sharing their faith, and Anointed as they do

This next area is as critical as any, and I often feel a sense of unusual intensity when I bring these before the Lord.

M = Moral purity, and Mates that are godly

I try to pray for protection in multiple areas of moral impurity, including greed, lying, theft, illegal drugs, materialism . . . but especially sexual impurity, perhaps because I know the grip it had on me for too many years. I remember my first brief exposure to pornography while in college. It immediately created a level of curiosity that, like any addictive substance, sought more I am convinced that it was curiosity that killed not only the cat, but Adam as well. It was the “wondering about the prohibited” that created a sense of what and why in Adam’s heart after he had been told not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The same was true with David on that rooftop . . . a curious search for more. What is the solution? What is the greatest deterrent to sexual immorality for my children? For me? I asked one of my sons, when he was in college, why he did not struggle more with this issue.  His answer was not profoundly unusual, but profoundly powerful. “If you love Jesus, how could you love what He doesn’t?" SO, when I pray for moral purity, I pray that they would love Jesus with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength. Remember, the solution for rampant impurity for the believers at Ephesus was not “how to” and “what to” but “who to.” They were to return to the first love that they had left. Perhaps I am just a simple guy, but I have tended to limit my prayer requests regarding future mates for my children to just one overriding quality: Godliness. I love Gary Thomas’ book entitled Sacred Marriage, where the byline on the cover asks an all-important question regarding marriage: “What if God designed marriage to make us holy more than to make us happy?” If my future daughter-in-law or son-in-law is godly, everything else will be fine. Think about it: Being like Christ means being filled with the Spirit of Christ. Can you imagine a marriage not thriving where the list of relational qualities of the Holy Spirit in Galatians 5 are permeating the relationship? Love. Joy. Peace. Patience. Kindness. Goodness. Faithfulness. Gentleness. Self-control. If someone cannot become holy and happy with that kind of person, then the problem is not with the mate but with my kids!

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