The power of parental prayer. How to ask God to protect a child from evil!? Prayers throughout the day

Demanding respect for yourself - isn't it strange? Should people be reminded to respect others? Yes, that's true if we're talking about about strangers, and not about our children, because they need to be taught this.

The Bible says, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is what is right.” “Honor your father and mother” is the first commandment with the promise: “May it be good for you and you may live long on earth.” (Eph. 6:1-3). If our children do not obey this command of the Lord, they risk not only losing God's blessings, but also having their lives shortened. The Bible warns: “Whoever curses his father and his mother will have his lamp go out in deep darkness” (Prov. 20:20). Understanding that we have the power to influence the lives of our children, we must pray for them and raise them correctly, teaching them strict discipline. But we must also be able to distinguish the spirit of protest that can quietly settle in the hearts of our children and lead them away from the true path, and resist it.

Disobedience is pride put into action. The spirit of disobedience says, “I want to do what I want, regardless of what God and other people think about it.” The Bible teaches: “...disobedience is the same sin as witchcraft...” (1 Tsar. 15:23), because the result of both is complete rejection of God. The same verse says that “resistance is the same as idolatry.” Pride leads to rebellion, and stubbornness prevents a person from repenting and humbling himself before God. A disobedient person may worship some idol. If children do not respect their father and mother, this first of all indicates the presence of idols in their hearts (and the age of such a child does not matter). The names of these idols are known: they are pride and selfishness. Therefore, if children do not learn to respect their parents, they become disobedient to God. They declare, “I want what I want, when I want it.” Don't let your child's rebelliousness bother you. Remember that Jesus Christ is Lord of all (Luke 10:19) and He has given us authority to “tread on all the power of the enemy.” (Eph. 6:12)

Prayer

Lord, I ask You: create in my child (child’s name) a heart that wants to obey You. Place in this heart a passionate desire to spend time with You, with Your Word and in prayer, listening to Your voice. Illuminate with Your light every secret seed of disobedience ripening in the depths of my child’s heart, so that it may be discovered and destroyed. Lord, I pray that pride, selfishness, or disobedience will never arise in the heart of my child. By the authority given to me by Jesus, I “tread on all the power of the enemy” and stand against the spirits of idolatry, disobedience, stubbornness, disrespect, so that my child will never know them and never set foot on this disastrous path.

Your Word says, “Children, be obedient to your parents in everything, for this is pleasing to the Lord” (Col. 3:20). I ask You: turn the heart of my son (daughter) to his (her) parents and teach him (her) to respect and obey his father, so that his (her) life will be long and glorious. Turn his (her) heart to You, so that all his (her) deeds and actions will be pleasing to You. Teach him (her) to recognize the spirit of pride and rebellion and resist it, seek repentance and deliverance from it. Make him (her) irreconcilable to all sin. Help him or her to know the beauty of walking before You in a humble spirit. Amen.

This book will tell you about the great power of prayer. If your marriage is going through difficult times, you may find tips here that will help you take a fresh look at the current situation in your family and give you advice. right decision your problems. You will find out what the true calling of a wife is. Learn to understand your husband better. Stormy Omartian uses real-life examples to show how effective your prayer can be. After all, often she alone can fix everything.

PREFACE

When talking about Stormi and I’s long marriage, I sometimes joke: “These 25 years have been the most happy years for me and the most unfortunate for her.” After a quarter of a century of marriage, it’s unlikely that any aspect of my complex personality remains a secret to Stormy. She saw it all: my triumphs, my downfalls, my struggles, my fear and despair. She had every reason to doubt my worth as a husband, as a father and as a musician. She saw how I was offended by God because He did not fulfill all my requests on demand; she saw the miracles of God when He raised something from the ashes and turned it into gold. Every step along this path was accomplished through her prayers. This book is written based on Stormi's experiences over the years. I can't imagine what my life would be like without her praying for me. Her prayer brings me comfort and security, and also helps me fulfill God's commandment to pray for each other. I can't imagine any other way to knowledge true love to my husband, except for one thing - to constantly pray for him. This precious gift helps him to know the joy of God's blessings and His grace.

Stormy, I love you.

Knowing the power and grace of your prayer
your husband Michael

I lovingly dedicate this book to my husband, Michael, who has given me so much more than I ever prayed for. We both learned the power of prayer.

Gratitude

My special thanks to:

To my secretary and indispensable assistant, Susan Martinez, who took on most of the work on this book. Your sisterly love, friendly devotion and prayerful support, combined with your competence and complete dedication to our common cause, have become a priceless gift to me.

To my friends who pray with me, who, like me, have learned what effort it takes to deny ourselves in this tearful prayer to God for our husbands. Without your sincere devotion to the Lord in prayer, this book might not have existed at all. I will forever keep you in my heart as precious treasures.

To my daughter Mendy and my son Chris for loving us, your parents, despite the fact that our relationship was far from ideal. I regret the fights we had before your eyes before Michael and I realized the benefits of prayer over seeking solutions to our problems on our own. My prayer is that you will take all the good things we have learned into your own marital relationship.

To my new son, John David Kendrick, for accepting me as your own mother when your parents were already in heaven. You became for us what we needed all the previous years, but did not know about it until you came into our lives.

Pastor Jack Hayford and his wife, Anna, and Pastor Dale Heurist and his wife, Joan, for teaching me how to pray and teaching me the secret of true marriage.

To the entire Harvest House team: Bob Hawkins Sr., Bob Hawkins Jr., Bill Jensen, Julie McKinney, Teresa Evenson, Betty Fletcher, and LaRay Weikert, for your active participation in the development of this book and for your significant contributions to its creation. You are all the joy of my heart, but I am especially grateful to the head of the publication, Carolyn McCready. Thank you for your help and support.

. To my publisher, Holly Halverson, whom I value for her professional insight and sharp mind.

Tom and Patty Brousseau, Michael and Terry Harriton, Jan and Dave Williamson, and Dave and Priscilla Navarro for your participation, sharing your life experiences with me and showing me in practice the power of a praying wife.

Who will find a virtuous wife? its price is higher than pearls; The heart of her husband is confident in her, and he will not be left without profit; she rewards him with good, not evil, all the days of her life. Proverbs 31:10-12

THE POWER OF PRAYER

First of all, I want to state that the power of a wife's prayer should not be seen as a means of gaining control over her husband, and I want to warn you not to delude yourself with false hope! In reality, the opposite is true. The power of prayer lies in the renunciation of oneself, of all claims to own strength and opportunity, in a willingness to fully trust in the power of God to transform you, your husband, your entire life and, of course, your marriage. This power is not given in order to later become a whip to curb an unruly beast. It is given to be a means of gradual restoration of the marriage, which can only come about through the prayer of a wife who seeks to do right, not just to be right, and to give rather than take. This is the only way to ask God to come into your husband's life for the blessings that will ultimately be given to you.

When Michael and I got married and disagreements began to arise between us, the last thing on my mind was prayer. Moreover, in her I saw my last hope. I tried a wide variety of methods: I quarreled, argued, begged, closed in on myself and, of course, used such a popular method as the game of silence. It took time to understand that thanks to prayer one can do without such unpleasant methods.

Today, as you read this book, Michael and I have been married for more than a quarter of a century. This is nothing less than a miracle, and this is not our merit in the slightest - it is all a matter of the mercy of God in answering prayers. I can admit that even after many years I continue to learn this, and it is not at all easy. Even today I may still make mistakes, just as I made mistakes before, but I can say with confidence that prayer works.

Unfortunately, I didn’t know how to pray properly for my husband until I started praying for my children. When I received serious and deep answers from God to my prayers for them, I decided to pray just as diligently and fervently for him. However, I have found that praying for children is much easier. From the day they are born, we take part in their lives, wishing with all our hearts the best for them. But praying for your husband is not so easy, especially if you have already known the bitterness of married life. Your husband can offend you with his indifference, lack of attention, he can be rude and incredibly annoying. He can speak words that pierce your heart like a needle, and every time you begin to pray for him, you feel how much that festering wound hurts. Obviously, you cannot open your heart to God in the way that pleases Him until you get rid of this “needle” in your heart.

Praying for a husband is not at all the same as praying for a child (no matter how similar they may seem), because you are not your husband’s mother. We have authority over our children given to us by the Lord, but we are not given authority over our husbands. However, we are given “the power to attack... all the power of the enemy...” (see: Luke 10:19 ) and thwart the enemy’s plans with your prayer. Numerous problems that arise in marital relationships are actually part of the enemy's plan to destroy them completely. But we can say:

. I will not allow anyone or anything to destroy my marriage.

. I will not stand by and watch my husband be led astray.

. I will not look indifferently as an invisible wall is erected between us.

I will not allow the rust of alienation and misunderstanding or bad choices to corrode our relationships and destroy what we are trying to build together.

. I will not accept the pain and unwillingness to forgive that pushes us towards divorce.

We can resist any negative impact on our marriage and be confident that God will give us the strength in His name to preserve it.

You have the means to put a protective wall around your marriage because Jesus said: “...whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven” (Matthew 18:18). You have the power in the name of Jesus to stop evil and open the way for good. In prayer, you can tell God about everything that prevents your husband from living a full life: about alcoholism, workaholism, laziness, depression, weak character, quarrelsomeness, a feeling of constant anxiety, fear or chronic bad luck - and pray for his release from all this.

Don't rush to condemn your marriage to death...

Now I can honestly admit that I once seriously thought that my husband and I should live separately, and perhaps even get a divorce. Today, such a solution is unacceptable to me, because I do not consider either the first or the second option to be the best way to solve the problem of an unhappy marriage. I know what God says about divorce; I know that this path is not pleasing to Him and greatly upsets Him, and the last thing in the world I want to upset the Lord. But I also know well the feeling of despair that kills any ability to make good decisions. I knew the degree of hopelessness at which a person gives up all attempts to do the right thing. I know such depths of loneliness, being in which the soul is ready to rush to anyone who only agrees to look into it and see you in it. I experienced such unbearable pain that the fear of dying from it forced me to look for the only available means of survival - to get rid of the source of this pain. I know what it's like to act out of hopelessness because you have no future. I have experienced such pressure negative emotions day after day, that nothing but divorce promised me the desired relief.

The greatest problem in our marriage was my husband's short temper. The only targets for his anger were me and our children. From his words, everything inside me shrank and turned cold. I cannot say that I was sinless - quite the opposite. I was sure that I was as guilty as he was, but I didn’t know how to fix everything. I constantly prayed to God to soften my husband’s temper, to make him less irritable, softer and calmer, but I did not notice any changes. Didn't God hear me? I even began to have a suspicion: doesn’t He favor the husband more than the wife?

After several years of such a life, one day I turned to the Lord with tears: “Father, I can’t live like this anymore. I know how You feel about divorce, but I can no longer live in the same house with this person. Help me, Lord." I sat on my bed for hours with the Bible in my hands and fought the strong urge to take the children and leave. I know that by hearing my cry from the soul, God allowed me to clearly and clearly see what my life would be like after divorce, and to think about the problems that would arise for me: how I would make a living and raise my children, which of my friends would remain with me, and the worst thing is how the divorce will affect the psyche of the son and daughter. The picture was extremely terrifying. If I leave, perhaps I will feel better, but only at the cost of losing everything that was dear to me. I knew this was not the way God had planned for Michael and me.

As I contemplated my future, God revealed to me that if I willingly laid my life before His throne, if I abandoned my intention to leave my husband and trusted Him with all my needs, He would teach me how to devote my life to prayer for Michael. He will show me how to pray for my husband, and as I pray, He will restore my marriage and shower His blessings on both of us. We'll both be better people if we go through this together instead of apart. The Lord showed me that Michael was tightly bound by the web of his past, which did not allow him to become different. But He intended to use me as an instrument to free my husband if I agreed to it. It was painful and difficult to agree, and I cried a lot, but when I decided, hope began to glimmer in me for the first time in many years.

I began to pray for Michael every day - praying like I had never prayed before. However, each time I had to confess the vices of my own heart. I saw how deep my pain and resentment were. I don't want to pray for him. I don't want to ask God to bless him. I want God to strike his heart with lightning and expose him to cruelty, I thought. I repeated: “Lord, I confess my inability to forgive my husband. Teach me mercy."

Little by little I began to notice changes in both of us. When Michael became angry, instead of getting annoyed as usual, I prayed for him. I asked God to show me the reason for his anger. And He showed. I asked what I could do to change the situation. And He taught me. Outbursts of anger began to happen less and less often and became less and less durable. Every day something positive was created through prayer. And today we are still far from perfect, but we have come a long way. It was difficult, but I am confident that God's path is worth the effort required to walk it, for it is the only way to save the marital union.

The power of a wife’s prayer for her husband is incomparably greater than even the power of his mother’s prayer (forgive me, mom). Of course, there is nothing hotter than the prayer of a mother asking for her son, but after getting married, a man leaves his father and mother and becomes one with his wife (see: Matt. 19:5). Now they are one team, united by spiritual unity. The strength of the union of husband and wife in the eyes of God far exceeds the sum of their strengths outside of marriage. The reason for this is that the couple is united by the Holy Spirit, who gives power to their prayers.

Therefore, one cannot help but pray: after all, too much is at stake. Can you imagine praying for just the right side of your body? If one side is deprived of support and protection and collapses, then the same fate awaits the other part of the body. The same can be said about you and your husband. If you pray for yourself but don't pray for him, you will never receive the blessing you desire or experience the fullness of life. Everything that happens to him happens to you, and it is impossible to avoid it.

Our spiritual unity as husband and wife gives us strength that is not to the taste of our enemy, who invents new ways to destroy our marriage. He tries to tempt us in various ways, be it low self-esteem, pride, the desire to always be right, unwanted acquaintances, or self-indulgence. He will lie to you, saying: “Nothing will change,” “Nothing will work out for you anyway,” “There is no hope for reconciliation,” “You could be happy with someone else.” He will be convincing to get you to trust him because he knows that once you trust him, your marriage is doomed. If you believe most of these lies, your heart will harden against God's truth.

In any destroyed marriage union at least one side is against God. When you harden your heart, you lose the ability to see situations through God's eyes. When we are unhappy in our marriage, we grasp at every straw in search of a solution, but we cannot see the whole picture. We perceive only what lies on the surface, but God's will remains hidden from us. However, when we pray, our hearts, turning to God, are softened and our eyes are opened. We find hope because we begin to believe that the Lord can restore what has been broken and destroyed in our marriage: “And I will repay you for the years that the locusts, the worms, the beetles, and the caterpillars have devoured...” (Joel 2:25). We can trust Him and ask Him to take away our pain and hopelessness, heal our hearts of bitterness, and teach us to forgive. We can trust in God's power to raise love from the ashes.

Do you remember with what joy the heart of Mary Magdalene was filled when she, coming to the tomb of Jesus on the third day after the crucifixion, discovered that He was not dead, but resurrected by the power of God? What could be stronger than the joy that fills the soul at the sight of the dead coming to life! The power that raised Jesus can resurrect and fill your marriage today new life. “God raised up the Lord, and He will also raise us up by His power” (1 Cor. 6:14). There is no other force capable of doing this. But this is possible only with the complete aspiration of your heart towards God, only with your unconditional readiness to go through the difficult path in anticipation of the resurrection of love. For the path to joy lies through pain.

You yourself must decide the fate of your marriage and say whether you are ready to do what is really necessary to revive it. You must believe that what was destroyed in your marriage by pain, indifference and selfishness can be restored. You must believe that any tragedy in your life that has consumed you - violence, the death of a child, adultery, poverty, the loss of a loved one, a serious illness or accident - can be stripped of its deadly sting. You must believe that whatever divides you and your husband - workaholism, alcoholism, drug addiction or depression - all this can be overcome. You must know: no matter what trouble creeps quietly and treacherously into your relationship with your husband, no matter what you become obsessed with - your career, your dreams, caring for children or selfish desires - all of this can be dealt with. You have to believe that God is powerful enough to do this and more.

If one morning you wake up and realize that the husband lying next to you has become a stranger to you; if you feel silent hatred that breaks all the threads of the spiritual connection between you; if you see how love and hope inexorably disappear drop by drop; if your relationship is full of pain and anger, and every day only adds to the despair; if every spoken word drives a wedge between you even deeper, turning it into an insurmountable barrier separating you - if all this happens in your life, then be sure: it is not God’s will. The Lord wants to destroy all barriers between you and your husband and restore your marriage. He can heal wounds and put love in your heart. Nothing and no one except Him is capable of doing this.

But you must firmly say: “Lord, I pray that this conflict will come to an end, that the wall of hostility between me and my husband will collapse. Deliver us from the pain and hatred with which we try to defend ourselves. Teach us to forgive. Speak with our lips, so that in our words there may be Your love, Your peace. Destroy this wall and teach us to walk Your path. Lead us out of the ignorance in which we are; Reveal Your truth to us so that we can be healed and reborn for a new life, as You want.”

Do not rush to declare your marriage hopeless and do not ask God for another husband. He is able to make your current husband a new creation in Christ. Husbands and wives were not created to be at enmity, to be strangers to each other, to live in a dead marriage or separately, to endure humiliation and to get divorced. On our side God's power. We cannot leave our marriage to fate. We must fight for it because we have hope. If God is next to you, then there is nothing in your life that cannot be reborn from the ashes. Even your own feelings.

What about me? I need prayer too

Naturally, when you start praying, you will think about whether your husband will pray for you the same way you pray for him. No matter how wonderful this may seem to you, don’t flatter yourself. Prayer for your husband is an act of manifestation of sacrificial and selfless love on your part. You must be willing to make this sacrifice and pray for him with complete dedication, realizing that it is quite possible, and even very likely, that he will never pray for you the way you do. Most likely, he will not pray for you at all. You can ask him and pray for it, but you cannot demand it from your husband. However, this is not your concern, but God’s. So relieve him of this duty. If he doesn't pray for you, it's his loss, not yours. Your well-being does not depend on his prayers - it depends on your relationship with the Lord. Indeed, wives also need prayer. But I am convinced that we should not count on the help of our husbands. In fact, expecting your husband to be your partner in prayer would be an empty hope.

I realized that the most effective way to save our marriage was the prayerful support of the other women I prayed with every week. I'm sure this is beneficial for any marriage. If you can find a few women of deep faith in whom you can trust completely and reveal the secrets of your heart, set a time for weekly prayer. It will change your life. This does not mean that you are obliged to tell everyone the details of your husband’s personal life - no, your task is to ask God to correct your heart, teach you to be a good wife, to share the burdens of your soul with someone and ask for God’s blessings for your husband.

Of course, if your problem is very serious and you can wholeheartedly trust your friends to pray with you, do not hesitate to share it with them. I have seen many marriages end in divorce simply because people were too proud or afraid to tell someone their problems, someone who could pray for them. They create an outwardly prosperous picture, and one day everything turns into disaster. Here it is important to remember the confidential nature of the problem that you entrust to your friends, but in no case should you discount your marriage because of your indecision and doubts. If your prayer partner cannot keep a secret, find someone else who is more wise, compassionate, and spiritually mature.

Even in the absence of support from other people or your husband, your sincere prayer will bring good results. Before your prayers are answered God's blessings will be poured out on you only because you pray, because you are in the presence of God, and from here further changes begin.

Don't rush to start praying

Don't get scattered about finding different ways to intercede for your husband. This cannot be done in one day, one week or one month. Listen to the suggestions given in this book, and then pray as the Holy Spirit prompts you. In especially difficult cases, when a decisive breakthrough is needed, fasting can come to the rescue, which can make your prayers more effective. Great power have prayers based on Holy Scripture. At the end of each chapter you will find the necessary Bible quotes.

The most important thing is to be patient. Getting answered prayers will take time, and more so the more damage done to your marriage. Be patient and persistent as you wait for healing from God. Remember that you and your husband are both imperfect people, and only the Lord is perfect. Look to God as the source of all your marriage's needs and don't worry about how your healing will be accomplished. Your duty is to pray; The Lord will answer prayers. Place everything in His hands.

(to be continued)

Icons and prayers

The miraculous power of mother's prayer

“A mother’s prayer will reach you from the bottom of the sea” - this proverb has long become a byword. It was not said for the sake of a catchphrase. This is a truth that is relevant at all times, confirmed by countless examples of the amazing power and effectiveness of the prayers of millions of mothers. Holy maternal love is capable of overcoming any obstacles, achieving the impossible and creating real miracles.

1:4

The relationship between parents and children is modeled after our relationship with God, our Heavenly Parent.

Therefore, the Lord gave parents special power over their children:

Children, be obedient to your parents in everything, for this is pleasing to the Lord.(Col. 3:20).

The commandment to honor parents is not only an order, failure to comply with which is a sin. The Lord connected our longevity on earth with its fulfillment: Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.(Ex. 20:12).

The Holy Apostle Paul says that this is the first commandment with a promise(Eph. 6:2). A sad fate awaits a son or daughter who offends parents and openly disregards their authority and power. The eye that mocks the father and neglects obedience to the mother will be pecked out by the crows of the valley, and the eagle's chicks will be devoured!(Prov. 30:17).

2:4

The special power of maternal prayer is associated with the power that the Lord God gave to the mother over her children. One of the most edifying examples of great maternal love and prayer for a spiritually perishing son is the prayerful feat of Monica, the mother of Blessed Augustine, who was ten years in captivity of the disastrous false teaching of the Manichaean sect. The son she begged for not only escaped hell, but also became a saint.

In his Confessions, Blessed Augustine dedicated the most touching words: “You stretched out Your hand from on high and “drew my soul” from this deep darkness, when my mother, Your faithful servant, mourned me before You more than the mothers of dead children mourn. She saw my death by virtue of her faith and the spirit that she possessed from You - and You heard her, Lord; You heard her and did not despise the tears that streamed the earth in every place where she prayed; You heard her"(Confession. Book III. 11.19).

2:4

Mother's prayers for children

A mother’s prayer is the strongest and most powerful, which can save her children from illness, misfortune and reckless actions. “A mother’s prayer will reach from the bottom of the sea” is a truth that is relevant at all times, confirmed by countless examples of the amazing power and effectiveness of the prayers of millions of mothers. Holy maternal love is capable of overcoming any obstacles, achieving the impossible and creating real miracles.

A mother's word has special power. There is nothing brighter and more selfless than a mother’s love. From the first day of birth of a child, the mother lives by his breath, his tears and smiles. The child needs the mother. This is the meaning of her life. Love for her baby is as natural to her as the blossoming of gardens in spring. Just as the sun sends out its rays, warming all living things, so a mother’s love warms a child. The mother introduces the child to life. She puts into his mouth the native language, which has absorbed the wealth of the mind, thoughts and feelings of the people. It fills him with spiritual strength and helps him comprehend eternal values.

Many good believing mothers have had to worry about their children dying in the whirlpool of a vicious, dissolute life. Some had to spend many years in sorrow, humbly waiting and hoping. Their holy tears and prayers were not in vain.

When children are ill, you can pray not only to Christ and the Mother of God, but also to numerous Orthodox saints. Among them, Nicholas the Wonderworker, Martyr Tryphon, Great Martyr Panteleimon, Blessed Xenia of Petersburg, Saint Matrona of Moscow and many others are famous for their special help.

If prayer doesn't help

Sometimes the help expected from God never comes, as if He does not hear prayers. But in any case, there is no need to despair. From the point of view of the Christian meaning of life, it is better for some people to die in time and be saved for Eternal Life than to survive, but then destroy their soul. Nothing happens by chance with God, and He takes a person to Himself at the moment of his best spiritual state and greatest readiness for salvation in Eternity. Or when the spiritual decline becomes irreversible.

And it also happens that God, seemingly for years, ignores the pleas of a mother asking him to help her child in trouble, but in the end the story has a good ending. And the reason for “deafness” turns out to be God’s desire to correct a person, for whom premature indulgences can only do a disservice.

A mother's prayer for her child

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, prayers for the sake of Your Most Pure Mother, hear me, a sinner and unworthy of a slave Yours (name).
Lord, in the mercy of Your power, my child (name), have mercy and save him for Your name’s sake.
Lord, forgive him all the sins, voluntary and involuntary, that he committed before You.
Lord, guide him on the true path of Your commandments and enlighten him and enlighten him with Your light of Christ, for the salvation of the soul and the healing of the body.
Lord, bless him in the house, around the house, in the field, at work and on the road and in every place of Your possession.
Lord, protect him under the protection of Your Saints from a flying bullet, arrow, knife, sword, poison, fire, flood, from a deadly ulcer and from vain death.
Lord, protect him from visible and invisible enemies, from all troubles, evils and misfortunes.
Lord, heal him from all diseases, cleanse him from all filth (wine, tobacco, drugs) and ease his mental suffering and sorrow.
Lord, grant him the grace of the Holy Spirit for many years of life, health, and chastity.
Lord, give him Your blessing for a godly family life and godly childbearing.
Lord, grant me, Thy unworthy and sinful servant, a parental blessing on my child in the coming mornings, days, evenings and nights, for Thy name’s sake, for Your kingdom eternal, omnipotent and omnipotent. Amen.
Lord, have mercy. (12 times.)

ABOUT Holy Lady Virgin Mother of God, save and preserve under Your roof my children (names), all youths, young women and infants, baptized and nameless, and carried in the womb of their mother. Cover them with the robe of Your motherhood, keep them in the fear of God and obedience to their parents, pray to my Lord and Your Son to grant them what is useful for their salvation. I entrust them to Your maternal supervision, for You are the Divine protection of Your servants.

Lord Jesus Christ, awaken Your mercy on my children (names), keep them under Your roof, cover them from all evil lust, drive away from them every enemy and adversary, open their ears and the eyes of their hearts, grant tenderness and humility to their hearts.

Lord, we are all Your creation, have pity on my children (names) and turn them to repentance.
Save, O Lord, and have mercy on my children (names) and enlighten their minds with the light of the mind of Your Gospel and guide them on the path of Your Commandments and teach them. Savior, do Your will, for You are our God.

7:4

Daily Prayer about the child:

Lord Jesus Christ, awaken Your mercy on my child (name), keep him under Your roof, cover him from all evil lust, drive away every enemy and adversary from them, open his ears and the eyes of his heart, grant tenderness and humility to their hearts. Lord, we are all Your creation, have pity on my child (name) and turn him to repentance. Save, O Lord, and have mercy on my child (name), and enlighten his mind with the light of the mind of Your Gospel, and guide him on the path of Your commandments, and teach him, O Savior, to do Your will, for You are our God.

Don’t forget to contact your child’s Guardian Angel.

8:4

Prayer to the Guardian Angel for children

Holy Guardian Angel of my child (name), cover her with your protection from the arrows of the demon, from the eyes of the seducer, and keep her heart in angelic purity. Amen.

There is also a parental prayer “For the blessing of children”

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, bless, sanctify, preserve my child with the power of Your Life-giving Cross. Amen.

10:4

There is also a special maternal prayer to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

O Most Holy Lady Virgin Theotokos, save and preserve under Your shelter my children (names), all youths, young women and infants, baptized and nameless and carried in their mother’s womb. Cover them with the robe of Your motherhood, keep them in the fear of God and in obedience to their parents, pray to my Lord and Your Son to grant them what is useful for their salvation. I entrust them to Thy maternal gaze, for Thou art the Divine Cover of Thy servants. Mother of God, introduce me to the image of Your heavenly Motherhood. Heal the mental and physical wounds of my children (names) caused by my sins. I entrust my child entirely to my Lord, Jesus Christ and Your, Most Pure, heavenly protection. Amen.

Prayers for a child's health

Prayer to Jesus Christ for children (Prayer for protection)

Lord Jesus Christ, let Your mercy be on my children (names), keep them under Your roof, cover them from all evil, take away every enemy from them, open their ears and eyes, grant tenderness and humility to their hearts.

Lord, we are all Your creatures, have pity on my children (names) and turn them to repentance. Save, O Lord, and have mercy on my children (names), and enlighten their minds with the light of the mind of Your Gospel, and guide them on the path of Your commandments, and teach them, Father, to do Your will, for You are our God.

12:4

Prayer to the Trinity for children

O Most Merciful God, Father, Son and Holy Soul, worshiped and glorified in the Undivided Trinity, look upon Thy servant (her) (name of the child) who is obsessed with illness; forgive him (her) all his (her) sins;

Give him (her) healing from illness; return him (her) health and bodily strength; Give him (her) a long and prosperous life, Your peaceful and most worldly blessings, so that he (she) together with us brings grateful prayers to You, the All-Bounteous God and my Creator. Holy Mother of God, by Your omnipotent intercession, help me to beg Your Son, my God, for the healing of God’s servant (name). All saints and Angels of the Lord, pray to God for His sick servant (name). Amen

13:4

Prayer to the Mother of God for her children

Oh, Mother of Mercy!

You see the cruel sorrow tormenting my heart! For the sake of the sorrow with which You were pierced, when a terrible sword passed into Your soul during the bitter suffering and death of Your Divine Son, I pray to You: have mercy on my poor child, who is sick and fading, and if it is not contrary to the will of God and his salvation, intercede for his health bodily with Your Almighty Son, Physician of souls and bodies.

O Loving Mother! Look how my child’s face has turned pale, how his whole body is burning from illness, and have mercy on him. May he be saved by God's help and serve with the joy of his heart Your Only Begotten Son, his Lord and God. Amen.

14:4

Mother's prayer for her son's health

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God. I trust in you and ask for my own son. Deliver him from illness and disease and cure his sinful soul from the wounds of mistrust. So be it. Amen.

Mother's prayer for her son's well-being

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God. I beg you for the well-being of my son and his deliverance from death sentences. If he has sinned, forgive him and send down Orthodox blessings from heaven. Thy will be done. Amen.

Mother's prayer for her son's marriage

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God. Help my child in a righteous marriage that will benefit his sinful soul. Send down a modest and reverent daughter-in-law holy orthodoxy. Thy will be done. Amen.

Mother's prayer for her drinking son

I beg you, Lord God, and ask for holy absolution. Help my drinking son get rid of his craving for alcohol and protect him from imminent death. Thy will be done. Amen.

18:4

Orthodox prayer of a mother for her son

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God. Grant my son good health, reason and will, strength and spirit. Protect him from harmful influences and guide him on the path leading to Orthodoxy. Thy will be done. Amen.

And when you feel maternal grief, remember that you have 5 Orthodox prayers through which we communicate with God.

Transcript

1 The power of prayer for your adult children Stormy Omartian St. Petersburg 2010

2 Originally published in English under the title: The power of praying for your adult children by Stormie Omartian Copyright 2009 Stormie Omartian Published by Harvest House Publishers Eugene, Oregon ISBN Omartian S. The power of prayer for your adult children / Trans. from English SPb.: MRO KHVEP “Christian Mission”, p. ISBN Edition in Russian. Publishing House "Biblical View", All rights are protected by international copyright laws. Executive editor A. I. Shaposhnikov Translator E. O. Komissarova Editors: I. A. Tarnavskaya, V. S. Volkova Proofreader N. A. Akinina Computer layout: A. B. Kodak Signed for printing Format / 16. Offset printing. Volume 18 pcs. l. Circulation 3000 copies. Order Local Religious Organization Christians of the Evangelical Faith Pentecostals "Christian Mission", St. Petersburg, st. Podvodnika Kuzmina, 46 Tax benefit All-Russian product classifier OK Code OKP Printed from ready-made transparencies at the State Unitary Enterprise “Printing house “Nauka”, St. Petersburg, V.O., 9th line, 12.

3 Contents What Every Parent of an Adult Child Needs to Know...5 Pray that your adult children will 1. See God pouring out His Spirit on them Open their hearts to God, His Word, and His ways Grow in wisdom, insight, and revelation Find freedom , restoration and wholeness Understood God's purpose for their lives Worked successfully and had financial stability Had a sound mind and right relationships Resisted harmful influences and destructive behavior Fleeed all sexual pollution and temptation Had good health and God's healing Married well and raised godly children Saved strong and fulfilling relationships Were protected and could withstand difficult times Moved into the future God had in store for them...273

4 And all your sons will be taught by the Lord, and your sons will have great peace. Isaiah 54:13

5 Things Every Parent of an Adult Child Needs to Know Every parent of an adult child needs to know seven things, and often no one will tell you any of them. I think it would have been great if someone had mentioned at least some of these before my kids grew up and entered adult life. Then I could prepare. When you are about to become young parents, older and more experienced parents diligently congratulate you on the child you are expecting. And then, when your baby is born, they congratulate you again, and this time they give you advice on how to raise your baby in the early years of his life. But regarding older, adult children, everyone is silent. They just smile meaningfully and say nothing about what awaits you ahead. I’m sure they’re thinking: “Why say anything now? Over time, they will find out everything themselves.” Or they even think that they are the only ones in the world born

6 6 The Power of Praying for Your Adult Children are experiencing difficulties with their adult children, so why scare others? In general, whatever the reason for this silence, no one talks about it. At least I haven't heard anything like that myself. I used to think that when kids turned eighteen, graduated from high school and went to college, parenting basically ended there. They have their own life, and you have yours. They remember everything you taught them. And now they move on to find high-paying jobs, get married and visit you with your grandchildren several times a year. Voila! Parenting time is over! Now you can do what you always dreamed of but were too busy raising children for. And don't dream! Nothing like that will happen! Your child will turn eighteen, hopefully graduate from high school, and only then will you discover that the days of serious parenting are just beginning. You pray that he or she gets into a good college or vocational school and that the professors don't teach him or her that there is no God and that communism is a great thing, or that morality is relative and that one should only desire what is deviation from the norm. The influences on your adult child now are far more frightening than you imagined years ago when he or she was born, and certainly far more sinister than when you yourself were finishing school, and you just can't stop thinking about all these frightening prospects. Despite the fact that there are more worries, it is possible...

7 What Every Parent of an Adult Child Needs to Know 7 You have less control over everything in their lives than ever before. After your children graduate from school (if they do), you hope that they will find a job that will give them security and assurance. You are always concerned that they meet a worthy bride or groom and that after they get married, they save their marriage. You care about how careful or careless they are about their health and whether they can make payments on their house. You worry about your grandchildren: that you will have them one day, and that they will be healthy and grow up to be good, godly children. I am here to tell you something that you may already suspect and even, most likely, already know for sure. And I'm not just revealing to you this truth that someone must have told you a long time ago, I'm giving you a way to deal with it. But first, I need to tell you seven things every parent of an adult child needs to know. 1. You Need to Know It Never Ends What no one will tell you is that caring for children never ends. I used to joke with tired, frazzled and overwhelmed new parents who were stressed out by unexpected 24-hour-a-day, 7-day-a-week responsibilities and a never-ending list of things to do in a day that simply there’s not enough to do it all,” telling them, “Don’t worry. It will only last eighteen years." I knew it was an inhumane joke, but I wanted them to know the truth. Besides, I liked hearing

8 8 The power of prayer for your adult children was heard as their tired sighs were followed by reluctant laughter. But now I see that I was kidding myself. And it turned out to be much more inhumane than I thought. And all because the truth is that it never ends! Although there are different stages and different times of parenthood, your heart and mind will always be with each of your children for the rest of their lives. And this is not an easy task, because no matter where they go or what they do, a piece of you will go with them. When they are happy, you are happy. When they suffer, you suffer too. Even after they have grown up and you are no longer physically around them on a daily basis, you still care every day, and many nights too, one might add, about their safety and difficulties, their fears and weaknesses, their successes and defeats, their decisions and mistakes. And after your children become adults, you are with them not only in your heart, they often remain close to you physically as well. I remember the day my husband Michael and I took our son Christopher to college, where he moved into a dorm. I cried the entire way back home, which was only fifteen minutes, since the university was not far from our house. It wasn't because I feared I'd never see him again, but because I knew his days with us were over and it was the end of an era. The next day, I also felt sad, but I got busy with writing projects that were already due. In addition, my eighty-five-year-old father, my sister who works in our home office, and my husband who works from home in his studio were with me.

9 What Every Parent of an Adult Child Needs to Know 9 At three o'clock in the afternoon I heard someone enter the house through the back door and my father was talking to this person. “Who could it be? I was surprised. Everyone who lives and works in the house is here, and we are not waiting for anyone.” I entered the kitchen and to my surprise I saw my son. Hey Christopher. What are you doing at home? Did you forget something? No, I just wanted to say hello, he said cheerfully, and then he sat down at the kitchen table and talked to my father for almost two hours. At five o'clock he said goodbye and went to the university to have lunch with friends in the cafeteria and then study. He did this almost every day for quite some time, then several times a week, and finally once or twice a week during his junior and then senior years. But that first day, when he walked into the kitchen, I began to suspect that this would never end. It always makes me smile when I think that of all the places he could have gone in those two free hours during the day, he wanted to be with his family, talking with his grandfather, who was lonely in a house full of workaholics who had no time to sit with him for a couple of hours and talk about the old days. My father lived to be ninety-three, and until the day he died he never tired of talking about how Christopher came home from college every day just to talk to him. The truth is that you will never stop being a parent who cares deeply about the well-being of your children, no matter what age they are, what age you are, and how close or far you are from each other. Never! And besides, it seems that when children become adults, everything they encounter, or everything that

10 10 The power of prayer for their adult children comes their way, has stronger consequences than when they were younger. And especially much stronger consequences than when you yourself were young. When we think about how scary the world is, how threatening and widespread evil is, and how helpless we feel in the face of it all, we can drive ourselves crazy with worry. Of course, young children can also face great challenges, even life-threatening or life-altering situations and conditions. But the very fact that they are still close to us in our home and under our care and protection makes us feel that we are in to a greater extent We own situations, or at least contribute to most of them. But as our children grow up and make many independent decisions without our input, we see all the possible serious consequences of bad decisions. And we also understand that we will pay for the wrong decisions together. When we see that life brings difficult challenges to our children, we want to help them. But how to do this in such a way that it does not turn out to be too intrusive or, conversely, insufficient? Only God knows the answer to this question. As parents of adult children, we may have a lot on our minds, but we can't guarantee that we'll be able to do anything about it or even voice all our thoughts, advice, and opinions. At least not for our adult children. But we have a tremendous opportunity to express these concerns to God and ask for His help. The great thing about all of this is that when we surrender our concerns to the Lord, trusting that He hears our prayers and answers them in the best interests of our adult children.

11 What Every Parent of an Adult Child Needs to Know 11 This means that our prayers have the power to bring change in their lives. And this gives us a peace that we cannot find in any other way. 2. You need to know that you can't fix them I was just introduced to an attractive young woman who was in her early forties. For me, forty years is still youth, thirty is early youth, and everyone under thirty is still children. In this regard, if we go the other way, then forty and fifty are youth, sixty and seventy are middle age, and eighty and older are approaching old age. Maybe in ten years I will reconsider all this. This young woman and I talked briefly about the weather: how hot it was that day and when it would finally rain again. And then she suddenly said, “I want to thank you for the book.” She couldn’t finish the sentence because her lips were trembling so much that she had to squeeze them tightly and swallow, trying to fight back the tears that were rolling down. But they refused to hold back and rushed down my cheek. During what seemed like a long interval between when she choked on the tears and when she was able to speak again, I wondered whether the tears were caused by her emotional disturbance or the situation in her marriage. I touched her hand to comfort her and waited silently for her to finish her sentence. For the book “The Power of a Praying Parent,” she said in a trembling voice. When she said the word “parent,” I immediately understood the source of her suffering. It was the type of deep pain that only a parent can feel

12 12 The power of prayer for your adult children when something wrong happens to your child. I immediately thought of the countless stories I had heard from other parents over the years. My mind was flooded with the grief of their disappointment from disobedience, rebellion, illness, misfortune, tragedy or wounding of children and the deep sadness of realizing that they were not living up to their full potential. As it turned out, she was talking about her adult child. She told me about several serious problems she and her husband were having with their twenty-eight year old son. She said that even at a younger age he gave them difficulties, but my book helped her overcome every year and every problem. But as he grew older, they had to deal with his recklessness, carelessness, laziness, promiscuity, bad habits and numerous personal troubles. When will this finally end? she sobbed in tears, a continuous stream flowing down her cheeks. How much longer do we have to feel pain and suffering, how much longer do we have to pray for our child and pay for his mistakes, especially financially? It’s a pity that I can’t give you an exact cut-off date, I replied, but I don’t think there is one. You are not alone in this. I hear stories like this everywhere I go. It can be difficult for parents to know where to draw the line between letting their adult child learn a hard lesson and helping them get back on their feet. We know we can't sit idly by, but sometimes we have to let them hit rock bottom. But still we must have wisdom. We also cannot stand by and allow them to destroy us. We want them to take it out

13 What every parent of an adult child needs to know 13 lesson, but we don’t want them to ruin their lives in the process. We need to find a balance between pushing them toward independence before they are ready and making it too easy for them when they need to grow up and learn to fly. I told her: The only way I know how to draw the line between helping your adult child and allowing him to live a life less than what God has for him is to ask God to give you wisdom. We should all ask God to show us what to do and what not to do for our adult children. We must ask God how to pray for them. We need to ask God for clarity and discernment to know when to simply pray and allow Him to work in their lives without any help from us. Only God knows how to do the right thing. It is only after you have completely surrendered your adult child into God's hands and placed the Lord at the head of his life that you can find true peace. You can't change your son, but God can. Your son needs you to love him, believe in him, and keep him in prayer. And then do whatever the Lord tells you to do, or not do, to help him get on the right path. I prayed with her and her husband, who, as it turned out, was waiting for her nearby. After that, she already looked stronger and found peace in her soul. I encouraged her to understand that God is the perfect parent: Not only will He give them wisdom in how to deal with their son and his problems, but He will also work in their son's life to change his situation and lead her

14 14 The power of prayer for your adult children in accordance with God's ways. God would also take away the guilt they felt about what was happening to their son. We all need to understand that we cannot fix or change our adult children. Only God can create changes in anyone that will last forever. Our job is to place our adult children in God's hands and then pray that God will work changes in them and in their lives according to His will. 3. You need to know that God can change everything It is not easy being the parent of an adult child. This is because it is difficult to know what to do for them and what not to do. When do you need to intervene in a situation? When are you overactive? When are your expectations too high or too low? When is your love too strong or not strong enough? Sometimes you think you are doing the right thing, but you are not. Or maybe it was appropriate for one child and not for another. I realized that only God can give you the wisdom you need in these matters. He will give it to you when you ask for it. But first you must understand and trust that when you pray for your adult child, God will hear and answer. This is exactly the way He arranges it. Praying is not telling God what to do. Praying is establishing a partnership with God in order to see that His will is done. You do not need to fully understand what His will is in order to pray for it to be done. You must also believe that although you cannot change anything in your adult life,

15 What every parent of an adult child needs to know, God can change everything. Even though God will not actually change anyone's will, He will penetrate the heart of anyone who is even the least bit open to Him. We will never know for sure who is completely closed to the things of the Lord and who is not. Only God knows this. So we need to pray and let God do the work. Without our prayers to call upon us the power of God, our lives are left to chance, sometimes leading to disastrous results. Let me give two diametrically opposed examples. I know of one family, let's call them the Joneses, whose son was constantly in trouble with the law. He was eventually arrested. And instead of posting bail for him, Mr. and Mrs. Jones decided to let him learn a hard lesson and left him in jail for a while. Unfortunately, in prison, one of the prisoners attacked him and beat him until he died from his wounds. Prison officials called the parents, telling them what had happened and where they could pick up the body. They were overwhelmed and wracked with guilt because they could have prevented it. They were good parents who tried to do the right thing, but it ended up being wrong. I don't know what is happening to them today, but I am sure that they are still suffering because of this tragic event. I know another family, let's call them the Browns, whose son also caused his parents to grieve for some time. When he was arrested and sentenced to imprisonment, they didn't try to get him out of there either. They knew he was guilty and wanted him to understand the consequences of his behavior. As a result, he worked for some time

16 16 The power of prayer for his adult children in prison, which turned his life around. The time he spent in prison was such an unforgettable and terrible experience that he never wanted to repeat it. All of us who prayed for him asked God to open his eyes to the truth about the path he was on and where it was leading him. We prayed that God would reveal to him who He made him to be and what future He had in store for him. God answered the prayers because the young man came out a changed man. He went to study, changed his life and no longer wasted time on bad activities. Both the Joneses and the Browns tried to do the right thing, hoping that their actions would lead to a complete transformation in their adult child. Both sets of parents made essentially the same decision. But the results came out exactly the opposite. For one family, this decision turned out to be a disaster, but for another it brought redemption. What's the difference? And the difference, I believe, lies in the presence of the Redeemer. I know for sure that Jesus was invited into the situation with the second family, the Brown family. They were believers, and God reigned in their hearts. They asked the Holy Spirit to come into their son's situation. Their friends and they themselves fervently prayed that the Lord would touch his heart. young man. In prayer, they asked God to pour out the Spirit of truth on their son and show him what was really going on in his life from God's perspective. In that prison, God spoke to him, and it became clear to him that although he had done wrong, there was no need for him to continue living as a fool. He had a choice. As far as I know, the parents of the first young man, the Joneses, were not believers and did not pray for their son. Their son was not dedicated to the Lord, he was not taught God's ways,

17 What every parent of an adult child needs to know 17 and no one prayed for him. He did not have the benefit of the prayers of his parents, family, and friends to protect him and help him hear God. I'm not saying that adult children of parents who pray for them will never have any problems. Of course, there will be problems. But if parents pray for their adult child, then even the bad things that happen to him will be crowned with good in his life. We may not be able to see it at the time, but God will turn their situation into something good. God uses what we perceive as problems to capture the attention of our adult children and convince them that life without God is impossible. Sometimes the difficulties that befall them are actually due to the mercy and love of God working in their lives to save, correct, or protect them from something much worse (see Proverbs 3:11, 12) . If you've never prayed for your adult child before, or if something bad happened to him or her before you learned how to pray, don't worry. God the Redeemer. Redemption is His specialty. Not only does He redeem our lives from death and hell and save us forever, but He also redeems us from hell on earth and saves us here and now. God will free us from a troubling situation when we ask Him to do so. When praying for your adult child, you need to believe without a doubt some facts about God: 1. You must believe that God loves you and your adult children and He will hear your prayers for them. You need to know that " those who love God to those who are called according to His purpose, all things work together for good” (Rom. 8:28). If you love

18 18 The power of prayer for your adult children of God and want to live in His will, then you are called according to His purpose. The verses immediately before verse 28 talk about prayer. Could this mean that when we pray, everything works together for good in our lives? 2. You must believe that God can deliver you from any fears you have about your adult children. What was true for David is also true for you. David said, “I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my dangers” (Ps. 33:5). You can seek the Lord by worrying about your adult children. He will hear you and relieve you of all fears. 3. You must trust that God can give you and your adult children what you need when you ask for it. You need to have faith in God's ability to hear and respond. “But let him ask in faith, without doubting at all, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, lifted and tossed by the wind. Let such a person not think of receiving anything from the Lord. A double-minded man is not steadfast in all his ways” (James 1:6-8). We cannot expect an answer to our prayers without faith in the God to whom we pray. 4. You must believe that no matter the size of your adult child's problem, God is greater than that problem. Jesus said, “What is impossible with men is possible with God” and “With God all things are possible” (Luke 18:27; Matt. 19:26). Also, to one father who was seeking deliverance for his son, He said: “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes” (Mark 9:23). He is the God of the impossible, which means that with Him everything becomes possible. God can change everything and everyone, even you and your adult child, but He must first be invited to intervene

19 What every parent of an adult child needs to know 19 in your situation. And this only happens when you pray. 5. You must trust that as the love and power of God flows into you, your prayers for your adult children will always have power. Because your prayers are powerful, you will always have hope. “But hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Rom. 5:5). The Holy Spirit is God's power. When you have the power of God working in your life, you have hope for everything. List God's promises for you is much longer than your list of worries about an adult child. Any adult child is vulnerable to problems. Even the best children can still struggle as adults. Your child may be dedicated to God or baptized in infancy, he may receive the Lord at age two, he may walk Sunday school for eighteen years and all this time being homeschooled. But when he or she is out of your control, he or she may still face some serious challenges, develop bad habits, be exposed to unhealthy influences, choose undesirable friends, or suffer the consequences of poor decisions. But the good news is that God can change all that when you pray. 4. What you need to know is that you need to stop blaming yourself. Let's face it. Children make us feel guilty from the moment they are born. We constantly think: “Am I feeding him too much? Maybe I'm not feeding her enough? Not too

20 20 The power of prayer for my adult children. How much do I do? Maybe I'm not doing enough? Have I given too much? Maybe I didn’t give enough?” And everything is complicated by the fact that all children are different. Therefore, what was effective for the first child may not be effective for the second. Our first child was stubborn. From the moment he could stand up in his crib, he always knew what he wanted to do and when, no matter what his parents wanted. We had to be very firm and consistent in instilling in him the concept of obedience to mom and dad. Our second child was completely different. If Amanda did something wrong, all it took was a serious disapproving look to make her lose her head with fear. Strict discipline for her would be as destructive as weak discipline for her brother. We were always struggling with guilt, trying to figure out if we were too hard on him or too soft on her. Or, conversely, have we been too gentle with him and too harsh with her? But this does not mean that we did not make mistakes in both directions. Sometimes we were too hard or too soft with each of them. We've seen the consequences of both. We had to ask God for wisdom every day. I struggled with guilt about it all: about the things I should have done or said but didn't, and the things I shouldn't have done or said but I did. . Guilt is a killer. We parents wrack ourselves with guilt every time something bad happens to one of our children because we see how we could have done things differently and prevented it. For example, if our child does not get a good grade

21 What Every Parent of an Adult Child Needs to Know 21 at school, we blame ourselves. If she or he can't get along with a friend, it must somehow be our fault. If she or he gets sick or injured, we agonize over what could have been done differently to prevent it. We do the same even when our children are grown. When we see something in our adult child that we feel is wrong or that violates our idea of ​​what he should be, it makes us wonder: where did we go wrong? When we see a weak point in him or her, we fear that it is our fault. Even if you did something that had a negative impact on your child, you still need to move past it. You may regret not being around him or her enough during their childhood. Or there were some events in the child’s life that you missed, but which you should have attended. You may feel that you have been too strict or too lenient. Or you said something you didn't want to say. Or something needed to be done, but you didn’t do it. Now you can't change anything, you can't erase it or make it seem like it never happened. You need to get out of this state, and this can only be done by the power of the Holy Spirit. Your first task in this book is to get rid of guilt! In order to pray effectively for your adult child, you must stop blaming yourself for everything that goes wrong. And give God credit here. If you have made mistakes, confess them to the Lord and also to your adult child if it brings you relief. In this way, you will be able to gain the freedom of the forgiveness that God offers you. Ask

22 22 The Power of Praying for Your Adult Children Yourself: “Is there anything I can do about this now?” If yes, then do it. If not, give it to God and ask Him to free you from this situation and heal you in the process. This, of course, assumes that you know the Lord. If you have never accepted Jesus into your life, ask Him to come into your heart now, forgive you of all your sins and mistakes and fill you with His Holy Spirit. Thank Him for dying on the cross for you so that you could have forgiveness of sins and eternal life with Him forever and ever. Then ask Him to cleanse you of the results of all past mistakes and wounds and help you now live in a way that pleases Him. Ask Him to free you from guilt. There are only two ways to avoid feeling guilty as a parent. The first way is to die shortly after your baby is born. The second is to walk in God's ways every day and ask Him for wisdom in everything. Look, the better solution of the two is to walk in God's ways. When you walk in God's ways, you can not only look to Him for guidance, you can ask Him to free you from any guilt you have as a parent. Of course, there are some parents who never blame themselves for anything. On the contrary, they blame everyone around them. They say things like, “My daughter has problems because of the other girls she was with,” or “My son is lazy because his father never asked him to do anything around the house.” But placing blame on others rather than giving it to God prevents the parent or child from experiencing the great good that God can bring out of difficult situations. When a child is forced to admit

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The relationship between parents and children is modeled after our relationship with God, our Heavenly Parent. Therefore, the Lord gave parents special authority over children: Children, be obedient to your parents in everything, for this is pleasing to the Lord (Col. 3:20).

The commandment to honor parents is not only a prescription, failure to comply with which is a sin. The Lord connected our longevity on earth with its fulfillment: Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you (Exodus 20:12). The Holy Apostle Paul says that this is the first commandment with a promise (Eph. 6:2).

A sad fate awaits a son or daughter who offends parents and openly disregards their authority and power. The eye that mocks the father and neglects obedience to the mother will be pecked out by the crows of the valley, and the eagle's chicks will be devoured! (Prov. 30:17).

The special power of maternal prayer is associated with the power that the Lord God gave to the mother over her children. One of the most edifying examples of great maternal love and prayer for a spiritually perishing son is the prayerful feat of Monica, the mother of Blessed Augustine, who was ten years in captivity of the disastrous false teaching of the Manichaean sect.

The son she begged for not only escaped hell, but also became a saint. In his “Confessions,” Blessed Augustine dedicated the most touching words to his mother: “You stretched out Your hand from on high and “drew my soul” from this deep darkness, when my mother, Your faithful servant, mourned me before You more than the mothers of dead children mourn . She saw my death by virtue of her faith and the spirit that she possessed from You - and You heard her, Lord; You heard her and did not despise the tears that streamed the earth in every place where she prayed; You heard her” (Confession. Book III. 11.19).

I would like to give another example of the power of parental prayer. In the “Life” of St. Gregory the Theologian there is such a story about the disaster at sea that he experienced in his youth while sailing to Greece. “After this, he wished to go to Athens and boarded the Aeginean ship along with the pagans.

As we sailed past the island of Samos, a strong storm arose at sea. Everyone despaired of saving their lives and cried in view of bodily death. Gregory cried, fearing spiritual death, since he had not yet been baptized, but only announced. He recalled the former miracles of God in the waters: the passage of the Israelites through the Red Sea and the salvation of Jonah from the belly of the whale. He prayed to God with cries, asking for deliverance from death in the waves. These disasters of his during the sea voyage were revealed to his parents in a dream vision.

They immediately began to pray and shed hot tears before God, asking Him for help for their son in distress at sea. God, who kept His servant Gregory for the benefit of many and prepared him to become the pillars of the Church, tamed the fierce storm and rebuked the winds; There was complete silence on the sea. All those on the ship, seeing themselves, beyond expectation, saved from death and, as it were, snatched from the bonds of death, glorified Christ God. They knew that only by invoking His all-powerful name in Gregory’s prayer was the sea tamed.

Moreover, one young man, a travel companion of the saint, saw in a dream at night during excitement and a storm that Gregory’s mother, Blessed Nonna, hastily came across the sea, took the sinking ship and brought it to the shore. When the excitement subsided, he told everyone about the vision, and everyone confessed the God of Gregory as the Great Helper - they thanked Him and believed in Him.

In addition, Father Gregory, who prayed with tears in Nazianza for his son and then fell asleep after prayer, had another vision. He saw one furious demon, Erinn, who tried to destroy Gregory at sea, but Gregory grabbed him with his hands and defeated him. From this vision, Gregory’s father learned about his son’s deliverance from death and offered thanks to God with his wife. Saint Gregory completed his subsequent journey by sea safely and arrived in Athens” (St. Demetrius of Rostov. Lives of the Saints. January, 25th).

The Lord not only gave parents special power over their children, but also placed a special responsibility on them to use this power only for the good of their children. And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord (Eph. 6:4). There are cases where, over time, bad wishes expressed by parents to their child in anger came true.

But this does not mean that malevolence can have spiritual power. No, the Merciful God has set limits on the possible use of parental power for evil. We know that the word of God forbids cursing even personal enemies, for judgment belongs only to the Lord: But to you who hear, I say: love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you and pray for those who mistreat you (Luke 6: 27–28) .

Moreover, it is forbidden for parents to curse their children, who are God’s property. What seems to come true as a parental curse has reasons in the person himself. His poor disposition of soul and lack of parental blessing lead over time to disastrous consequences. We are seeing this tragedy now when we think about the life of the modern younger generation.

Parents cannot give what they themselves do not have. Therefore, if they want their children to be protected by parental prayer, they themselves must live in that blessed tradition, in which everything true, good and viable was crystallized.

A MOTHER'S PRAYER FOR HER CHILDREN

God! Creator of all creatures, adding mercy to mercy, You have made me worthy to be the mother of a family; Your grace has given me children, and I dare to say: they are Your children! Because You gave them existence, revived them with an immortal soul, revived them through baptism for a life in accordance with Your will, adopted them and accepted them into the bosom of Your Church.

God! Keep them in a state of grace until the end of their lives; grant them to be partakers of the sacraments of Your Covenant; sanctify by Thy truth; may he be holy in them and through them holy name Yours! Send me Your gracious help in raising them for the glory of Your name and the benefit of your neighbor! Give me methods, patience and strength for this purpose! Teach me to plant in their hearts the root of true wisdom - Thy fear! Illuminate them with the light of Your wisdom that rules the universe! May they love You with all their souls and thoughts; may they cleave to You with all their hearts and throughout their entire life may they tremble at Your words! Grant me the understanding to convince them that true life consists in keeping Your commandments; that work, strengthened by piety, brings serene contentment in this life, and in eternity - inexpressible bliss. Open to them the understanding of Your Law! May they contribute to the feeling of Your omnipresence until the end of their days; plant in their hearts fear and disgust from all iniquity: that they may be blameless in their ways; May they always remember that You, All-Good God, are a champion of Your law and righteousness! Keep them in chastity and reverence for Your name! Let them not discredit Your Church by their behavior, but let them live according to its instructions. Inspire them with a desire for useful teaching and make them capable of every good deed! May they acquire a true understanding of those objects whose information is necessary in their condition; may they be enlightened with knowledge beneficial to humanity.

God! Manage me to impress with indelible marks on the minds and hearts of my children the fear of partnerships with those who do not know Thy fear, to instill in them every possible distance from any alliance with the lawless; let them not listen to rotten conversations; Let them not listen to frivolous people; May they not be led astray from Your path by bad examples; Let them not be tempted by the fact that sometimes the path of the wicked is successful in this world.

Heavenly Father! Grant me the grace to take every possible care to tempt my children with my actions, but, constantly keeping their behavior in mind, to distract them from errors, correct their mistakes, curb their stubbornness and obstinacy, refrain from striving for vanity and frivolity; Let them not be carried away by crazy thoughts; Let them not follow their own hearts; Let them not forget You and Your Law. May iniquity not destroy their mind and health, may sins not weaken their mental and physical strength. Sprinkle them with the dew of Your grace; let them advance in virtue and holiness; May they increase in Your favor and in the love of pious people.

Father of generosity and all mercy! According to my parental feeling, I would wish for my children every abundance of earthly blessings, I would wish them blessings from the dew of heaven and from the fatness of the earth, but may Thy holy will be with them! Arrange their fate according to Your good pleasure, do not deprive them of their daily bread in life, send down to them everything they need in time to acquire a blissful eternity; be merciful to them when they sin before You; do not impute to them the sins of their youth and their ignorance; bring their hearts into contrition when they resist the guidance of Your goodness; Punish them and have mercy, directing them to a path pleasing to You, but do not reject them from Your presence! Accept their prayers with favor; grant them success in every good deed; do not turn Your face away from them in the days of their tribulation, lest temptations befall them beyond their strength. Overshadow them with Your mercy; May Your angel walk with them and protect them from every misfortune and evil way.

All-merciful God! Make me a mother who rejoices over her children, so that they will be my joy in the days of my life and my support in my old age. Honor me, with trust in Your mercy, to appear with them at Your Last Judgment and with unworthy boldness to say: Here I am and my children whom You gave me, Lord! Yes, together with them, glorifying the ineffable goodness and eternal love Yours, I extol Your most holy name, Father, Son and Holy Soul, forever and ever. Amen.

(Compiled Rev. Ambrose Optinsky).