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And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests (Ephesians 6:18, NIV).
There are many types of prayer.
Praying for children and grandchildren—I believe—is a type of prayer that parents and grandparents should learn. Today’s Interruption is part one of two parts.
Let’s first discuss why we pray for children and grandchildren in this Interruption #1324. Then, tomorrow in Interruption #1325, we will discuss how to pray for our children and grandchildren.
Why? Two Reasons:
- We have wisdom that they don’t.
The part of a child’s brain responsible for wise decisions doesn’t fully develop until the mid-twenties, whereas the part of the brain that brings passion and confidence is almost fully developed in the womb.
Uh, oh!
Only God fully knows why the brain is designed for action, response, emotion, and confidence at birth, while the calm and reasonable portion of the brain lags a few decades.
I gained insight last year when I watched one of my four-year-old granddaughters climb the high dive ladder at the local pool to jump off. Fortunately, my wisdom-filled daughter yelled and stopped the attempt.
As I consider my grandchildren, they do things that I wouldn’t at my age. God designed a child’s brain to not have the fuddy-duddy senior citizen disposition but instead to be excited about the adventures needed to learn.
God also intends for parents and grandparents to yell and scream a lot in our prayers!
- Sins of the fathers and mothers.
I lay the sins of the parents upon their children and grandchildren; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations (Exodus 34:7, NLT).
Children and grandchildren are predisposed physically, psychologically, and spiritually to pattern behavior, control emotions, and develop a relationship with God through the behavior of their parents and grandparents.
This is good and bad.
In a perfect world without sin, addiction, fear, and anger, it’s all good. But in a world where all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, it’s a different story.
And praying parents and grandparents, with insight into the sins of the generations, must stand in the gap of intercessory prayer nullifying the impact of sins passed down through the generations.
I’ve heard many parents and grandparents pray, “This sin stops with my generation. There will be no further impact on my children and grandchildren!”
Now, some good news for parents and grandparents.
While evil seems to be on the rise right now, news statistics reveal a growing trend of grandparents spending time with their grandchildren.
- Seniors are living healthy and longer lives, which increases the time they can spend with grandchildren.
- As more families have two parents working outside the home, grandparents are providing more after-school care.
- Grandparents have new ways to connect with their grandchildren through social media like Messenger®, video calling, and Facebook®.
Three cheers for praying and active grandparents—parents too!
Remember, tomorrow, in Interruption #1325, we will learn how to pray for children and grandchildren.