Day 21: Humility LAST DAY!!!

Encouragement from Brooke

It's day twenty-one. The LAST day of your prayer challenge. Are you a mixture of relieved and sad all at the same time? What an accomplishment! (What an amazing amount of work!) If you're finishing today you deserve a pat on the back! Think of all the work that has been done on behalf of your sons! Congrats mom!

You might've noticed that there are actually twenty-two prayers in the Warrior Prayers eBook. I chose humility as our last day's topic because it is such an amazing posture of the heart. Scripture just seems to scream God's favor over those who are humble in heart.

• James 4:10 says that if we're humble before the Lord, He will lift us up.

• 1 Peter 5:6 says that if we humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God He will exalt us.

• Most importantly, in Psalm 149:4 we find that it is the humble who are adorned with salvation.

Do you see that? A humble heart is required for salvation. Just as Jesus humbled Himself unto the cross, we must admit that we're sinners, admit that our own way isn't the right way, and humbly ask for forgiveness before salvation comes. Do you show humility before your sons? Do you always have to be right? Always have to win? Pray and ask the Lord for specific ways you can show humility today so that when the time comes, your sons will know how to show it too.

So what is your takeaway from this Warrior Prayers Book? What have you learned? What is one thing you are going to keep praying for your sons?

Day 16: Gentleness

Encouragement from Brooke

Aggression in men is commonplace. It may not manifest itself the same way for all of them, but it’s there nonetheless. For the physical boys, it shows up in their need to be on the top of the wrestling pile. For the intellectuals, it shows up in their need to score the highest on the exam or be at the top of the class. Personally, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with aggression. I don’t want to break my sons of their aggressive streak and I’m learning not to be afraid of it. But I do want to teach them how and when to use it. I’m beginning to think that gentleness is more of an approach to life than a specific characteristic to develop.

Since they were born, we’ve whispered these words into our sons’ ears:

God made men to protect women and care for them. God made you a big brother! Your job is to protect your little brother, not hurt him. There’s a time to play and a time to listen. If you can’t listen, you have to feel (true in so many aspects of life). God wants you to use your strength to protect, not to hurt. Superhero’s don’t look for fights, but they will fight to protect others. It’s OK to want to be the best, but the best people in life are the ones who serve others. A gentle word turns away wrath …

"But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere." ~James 3:17

Day 15: Faithfulness

Encouragement from Brooke

I could talk about how many men struggle to be faithful to their wives. I could talk about how some men

get tossed about for most of their lives, never really knowing who they are or what they believe. I could

talk about how some of the young men I see today don't know how to hold down a job, or provide for their

families, or how to be a good and faithful husband and father. But really, what I want to talk about … what

I want to pray about today … is that our sons would be faithful to God.

Doesn't this one prayer bring with it the solution to everything else we could talk about? A man whose first loveis Jesus, will be faithful in all of the areas above. He won't be perfect, but he will possess the ability to be

empowered by the Holy Spirit to be faithful. It is something worth praying for.

“Now therefore fear the LORD and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness … " ~Joshua 24:14

Day 14: Goodness

Encouragement from Brooke

(Originally posted at the M.O.B. Society)

What are you aiming for? When your boys disobey, disrespect, are unkind. When they seek to understand what's important. When they notice girls, cheat in school or fight on the bus. When they're seeking marriage, failing in school or deciding whether to have sex for the first time or not … what are you aiming for?

I want their hearts. No behavior modification or fad parenting of the day. No, I want the hearts of our boys, because God wants the hearts of our boys. I'm aiming for the heart. But how?

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness. So you outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness."

(Matthew 23:27-28, ESV)

Looking at parenting through the lens of these verses has changed everything for me. You see I was a Pharisee. Boy was my cup clean on the outside. But on the inside? On the inside my cup was filthy, full of all uncleanness. I had everybody fooled, even myself. I believed that if I did good things, it made me good. Actually, it's probably closer to the truth to say I believed that if I didn't do bad things, I wasn't bad. I didn't know that no one is good. I didn't really understand that everyone sins. And I didn't understand the depth of my own sin until the Lord showed it to me.

Question: In our efforts to raise our sons are we teaching them that if they do good things they are good? Righteous even? If we teach them that being good is all it takes, if our discipline and training focuses on their behavior, how will they know they need a Savior? Are we raising little Pharisees? Or are we raising Godly men with a heart for God? If a Godly son is your goal, you must aim for the heart. Because unless the heart is changed--touched--the behavior will stay the same. It might look a little different, morph some as they grow. But behavior is always a symptom of the state of the heart. What's in the heart, comes out.

"Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks." ~Matthew 12:34

Ask yourself these questions:

• What parenting tools have I been using that only focus on changing behavior and not the heart? Am I willing to lay them down even if they produce what looks like a good child?

• Reaching a child's heart takes time. Behavior modification is much faster! Am I willing to change things about my life so that I have the time to invest in the hearts of my children?

• Most importantly: Am I willing to submit my own heart to God and allow Him to mold me from the inside out?

Shepherding our boys is not for the faint of heart friends! Once a week or more I'm tempted to just throw it all out the window (including the boys … ) and take the easier path. So what keeps me going?

Day 13: Kindness

This prayer stabbed me in the heart today.

May__________be kind and compassionate to others, forgiving, just as in Christ God forgave him (Ephesians 4:32).

I hate it when I hear my boys echoing the words and mannerisms I use towards them, towards their brothers. I admit it. When my boys do something...break a glass...pour chocolate milk all over the carpet...hit me in the eye with their toy...I hold a grudge. I don't hold it that long, but its there nevertheless. Then later, when one of them hits the other, breaks their toy, etc., they won't forgive them and they won't show kindness towards them.

Tonight I find myself praying more for myself than for my boys on this topic!

21 Days Schedule

In case you've missed a day or two and got off track, here is the basic schedule I made up. Keep it up! Only 8 days of the challenge left!

1.       Obedience 6/8

2.       Submission to authority 6/9

3.       Integrity6/10

4.       Avoiding foolishness 6/11

5.       Pride 6/12

6.       Purity 6/13

7.       A servant’s heart 6/14

8.       Honor6/15

9.       Love6/16

10.   Joy6/17

11.   Peace 6/18

12.   Patience 6/19

13.   Kindness 6/20

14.   Goodness 6/21

15.   Faithfulness 6/22

16.   Gentleness 6/23

17.   Self-control 6/24

18.   Anger 6/25

19.   Salvation 6/26

20.   Honesty 6/27

21.   Humility 6/28

Day 10: Joy

I’m sorry for the two days I was absent. I was a single mom this week and it caught up to me Wednesday and Thursday. I’m back, though! I hope you all are sticking through this challenge. I enjoy reading all of your posts, even if I haven’t had time to respond!

Encouragement from Brooke

What is joy really? And if my strength comes from the joy of the Lord (Psalm 28:7), then what does the joy of the Lord really look like?

As I write these words, I'm struggling with a deep desire to be grumpy and complain. Most days I handle my husband's crazy shift-work schedule pretty well. But today? Well, today I feel like complaining. So how do I find joy and strength from the Lord? Enough to make me "burst out in songs of thanksgiving?"  How do you?

Here's the secret: Focus on Christ. Focus on what He did for you (and for your sons) on the cross. I suspect we Christians have a tendency to misunderstand the phrase, "placing our trust in Christ." Placing our trust in Christ isn't something we did once and never do again. Salvation may be a once and forever event, but trusting in Christ is ongoing. Trusting in Christ's work of grace on the cross to be important enough to change my grumpiness to gratefulness. Trusting in Christ's work of grace on the cross to get me through a rough day with my children. Trusting in Christ's work of grace on the cross to be enough when I'm enduring tantrums in the grocery store. Trusting in Christ's work of grace on the cross when my sons choose their own will …

"The LORD is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my

heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him." ~Psalm 28:7

Day 7 A Servant's Heart

I'm hoping that the silence on here doesn't mean that everyone has given up on the challenge! I'm okay if people aren't engaged on my blog, but please keep up the prayers for your boys. If you are interested in the group dynamic of this challenge, then by all means, share what God is showing you through this.

We are 7 days in....Has anyone had any new revelations or interesting occurrences? On the subject of today's "A Servant's Heart," what specific ways do you teach your boys how to be a servant?

Day 6: Purity

Encouragement from Hal & Melanie Young

{Parents of SIX boys and authors of one of my favorite books on raising boys, Raising Real Men.}

The past ten years have brought a brutal assault on the purity of young men. Where it used to be that a young man had to happen upon a stash of wickedness in an uncle's footlocker for a few stolen moments or risk his reputation to go buy something in person at a store, now the evil comes looking for him. The average age of porn exposure is now 11 years old!

So how do we prepare our guys for this huge battle that is about to face them? How do we help them be strong and stay pure, so that one day they'll be knights in shining armor for their brides? We've got to get there first and be "the first with the most," as General Nathan Bedford Forest, the Civil War cavalry commander used to say. We need to be open and honest with our boys starting while Mama still gives them their bath and continuing through graduation and beyond--explaining and answering their questions, but especially putting it all in to the context of God's gift for marriage alone. Establishing that frankness and communication from the very start will really pay off when they enter the testosterone years.

Understanding what's going on is not nearly enough for our boys, though, especially as they become teens. We need to prepare them to look for the snares our enemy lays for them, give them tools to help them fight temptation, and make sure they have accountability that helps them stand firm. Too many mothers we talk to are in denial that their sons are old enough or sinful enough (hint: we all are) to face these temptations. That's sad, because their sons need their help!

We can help them, too, by praying for them. We need to pray for protection for them and pray they'll be strong enough to flee temptation - and pray for the princesses they will one day claim!

"And all who have this eager expectation will keep themselves pure, just as He is pure." ~1 John 3:3, NLT

An Except from Warriors Prayers: Leader’s Guide

Day 5: Pride

Keep up the great work everyone! Can you believe we are already on Day 5?

I wish there was more in the book that specifically talked about Pride. Pride is such a hard thing to pray against. Biblically, to be proud or to have pride is a negative thing that leads to a man or woman's downfall. I struggle with issues of pride myself, so I know the consequences of a haughty spirit. Yet, in the world, pride is a good thing to have. As parents, not only do we want to be proud of our sons, but we want them to be proud of themselves. There is such a fine line between encouraging them to believe that they can achieve and teaching them to trust in God for achievements because ultimately, he is the sovereign giver and taker of talents, gifts, trophies, victories, etc.

Day 4 Avoiding Foolishness

Encouragement from Brooke

In their book, Instructing a Child's Heart, Tedd and Margy Tripp have this to say about foolishness: "The Bible's definition of foolishness is concise. 'The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God.''

(Psalm 14:1).

 If there is no God, I am autonomous - a law unto myself. There is no consideration in life more profound than, 'What will please me?' Children don't say those words, but such foolish thoughts are the underlying justifications for hundred of impulses every day. It is expressed in all the acts of disobedience, selfishness, willful temper, and compulsive self-love." (p 112)

He sits across from me with his head down, this little love of mine who steals my heart and breaks it all at the same time. I ask him for the fourth time that day to tell me how many kinds of men there are in this world. His answer? Two.

The foolish man, who says in his heart there is no God, and acts like a law unto himself.

The wise man, who fears God and obeys Him.

Foolish choices bring unpleasant consequences. But the wise man has security in loving God and all the power of heaven on his side. And I ask him again to tell me what kind of man he wants to be. His answer? The wise man.

I know there will come a day when my little love will have to own this faith, but I believe with all my heart that teaching both of my sons to think in biblical terms now will help them choose in biblical terms later.

Day 3 Integrity

Day 3: Integrity

Okay, I love what Brooke said in the chapter “What are we aiming for?” As a mom of young boys, I just assume that if I do my job, they won’t have hearts of stone, or I can change it using my knowledge of child development. It was eye-opening to be reminded that it is not in our job description or ability set to convict anyone to live a God-glorifying life.

Unfortunately, she didn’t speak much on integrity though. In the leader’s guide she wrote this:

“Integrity can be defined as firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values or the quality or state of being complete or undivided. Someone who stands up for what is right no matter who is around.”

The bible is clear that loving God and loving others are the most important commandments (Matthew 22:36-40). However, integrity might be the most important trait for our sons to gain to live a healthy, fruitful life in our culture. No matter how much we try to shelter them, they will be confronted with so many chances to sin secretly. With sexting, internet pornography, social media/ease of adultery, the widespread availability of drugs and alcohol at a young age, we MUST pray for their integrity! 

I love the part of the definition that defines integrity as the “state of being complete or undivided.” When we are incomplete or divided in our faithfulness or loyalty to our children, our spouse, our God, problems arise. When a husband’s attention is divided between his wife and women on nasty internet sites (who are half our age, and surgically enhanced), spirits are crushed. When a politician divides his focus between his constituents and his mistresses, trust is lost. When an employee divides his loyalty between his corporation and his desire to make money by disclosing non-public information, jail time is imminent.  When a woman’s time is divided between reading her bible and reading gossip magazines, her mind (and therefore words and actions) is confused and her ministry is hindered.

Day 2: Submission to Authority

Day 2 Submission to Authority

There are a lot of ways we influence our children.  This is an area where our children will almost completely copy what we do. Think about all the ways during your day you must choose to submit to authority: You are a few minutes behind so you drive five over the legal speed limit.  William (6) has a sense for how fast you should drive on certain roads. If I’m above that, he will call me out.  Although I rarely drive more than 5 over, I’m  still thumbing my nose at the authority that put the limit in place. What about when politicians come on TV? What words do your sons hear you saying about THAT person, THAT law, THAT decision? You can love me or hate me, but I will tell you that I did not vote for President Obama. However, it drives me up a wall to hear people badmouth and call the president of our country nasty names. I’m even feeling convicted about how I sneak coffee or soda and snacks into the YMCA indoor pool area during swim lessons. I can justify breaking that rule in my mind, and then I get mad when my children don’t listen to lifeguard tell them to walk, instead of run on the pool deck!

How do you encourage submission to authority?

Extra thoughts:

Is there an area in your life where you have not submitted to God’s authority?

Is there something I can do to help you get more out of this challenge?

What are your thoughts so far?

Keep Praying!!
-Janine, Mother of William (6), Braden (3), and Jonathan (2)

Obedience Study Questions

For those of you who couldn't find the study questions on page 14, you have the 1st edition of the book. Email brooke at warriorprayers@gmail.com. She is working on a fix. For now, here are the Obedience Study Questions for today. There aren't any for Submission to Authority tomorrow.

Study Questions on Disobedience:

1. Describe the first time your son(s) deliberately disobeyed you. Did you recognize it immediately? How did it make you feel?

2. Do you have a plan for teaching your son(s) obedience? Or are you more of a “fly by the seat of your pants” kind of parent?

3. Have you ever considered how teaching obedience leads naturally to a deeper understanding of the Gospel?

4. In the book, Brooke talks about hearing a speaker say these words: “Ladies, if your man cannot submit to Jesus, he cannot lead you. A man must be willing to be led before he can truly lead.” How does this change your understanding of the importance of teaching your son(s) obedience?

5. Are there any discipline practices you’ve been using that need to be tweaked in order to better reflect the Gospel message?

Day 1: Obedience

**If you just got the ebook, or just opened it for the first time, you will see that today's study doesn't start until page 13 with the chapter, The Importance of Obedience. However we could probably have spent three days studying the Introduction and The Battle chapters. Both have valuable insights, biblical references, and thought-provoking study questions, so if you must skip these in order to stay on pace, try to come back sometime this week. Also, please take a moment and introduce yourself in the Introductions post! At the very least, tell us your name, where you live, and the names/ages of your children.

Day 1: Obedience

To Do:
1. Read page 13-14 on the subject of obedience.
2. Wherever you are journaling or taking notes, answer the study questions on page 14.
3. Choose one of these questions and submit it in a comment to this Day One post.
4. Print out the prayers for obedience on page 15 and write your son(s) names in the blanks and PRAY!


Here are Brooke's suggestion on how and when to incorporate these prayers into your day:

·         Get up early to bathe their sons in prayer first thing in the morning.

·         Pray the prayers one at a time throughout the day.

·         Make the prayers a part of their family devotion time, praying the prayers out loud over their sons.

·         Spend some time in concentrated prayer late at night, around bedtime.

May God bless your day!!

--Janine, mother to William (6), Braden (3), and Jonathan (2)

It starts tomorrow!!!

Thanks so much for joining my group! This is the first time I have done the 21 days, so I have no clue what I'm doing. I'm excited to go through this with you and meet some new friends from across the country!

21 Days of Prayer for Sons

Are you a mother of boys who often finds herself wanting to waive the white flag in defeat?

Do they drain you, overwhelm you, steal your heart, break your heart and cause you more anxiety than you ever dreamed possible?
Maybe you only have one boy amongst a sea of estrogen and you just can’t figure out how to respond to him in a way that affirms all that is good about his masculinity.
There are so many books out there today on the topic of parenting boys that I can’t count them. Nor do I have time to read them all. But even if I did, reading these books and putting the solid tools in them to work still doesn’t come with guarantees.
Knowing this, it becomes quite clear that there is only one thing we can do…
Plead with God.
Pray.

“The fervent prayers of a righteous man avails much.” James 5:17.

It’s our hope.http://www.brookemcglothlin.com/warriorprayers/21-days-of-prayer-for-sons/

21 Days of Prayer Introductions

Hello everyone! If you are reading this, then you are interested in the 21 Days of Prayer for Sons Challenge that begins on June 8th. I believe this will be a wonderful experience. If you have a son or sons like mine, they need a lot of prayer! If you want to join our group, please choose to subscribe as a follower so that you can stay in the loop. Once the challenge starts I will be changing this group to private so we could share personal stories/info, etc. if necessary without worrying about internet creepers. So make sure you subscribe!
Check out the website below:
21 Days of Prayer for Sons