Every Christian mom needs to create a pattern of prayer for her home and family. These 10 easy tips will help.
Every Christian mom needs an easy pattern of prayer
Are you praying regularly for your family? For your home?
Every Christian mom wants to be praying more for her family. We know how important prayer is! But in the middle of busy days, it is easy to forget. When life gets crazy, we get off track.
And let’s be honest, sometimes prayer just feels like checking a box off our Christian things-to-do list.
Join me today as we think through 10 easy times that you can be praying for your home and family. Create a powerful pattern of prayer in your daily life, and watch the impact on your family relationships.
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As we get to the end of our series diving into Proverbs 14:1, we have come to the most important part of building our home.
How does a wise woman build her home?
She prays.
Yes, we need to have a positive attitude on the rough days of family life. And every day, we have opportunity to build up our family with words of encouragement. As we’ve seen along the way, there are a lot of elements to being wise women building up our homes!
But honestly, my friend, it all boils down to this one thing.
Are you regularly, consistently, joyfully, obediently praying for your family? Have you found a pattern of prayer that works in your busy life?
What does a wise woman pray for?
As you pray for your family and home, there are a number of things that can (and should!) be covered in prayer.
- Your marriage
- And your husband
- Each child
- How you parent your kids
- Yourself
- Your actual, physical home
- Family dynamics and relationships
There are so many moving parts in a healthy Christian family! And every part will benefit from your efforts at prayer.
Yes, there can be differences in how you pray for each element of family life. But really, there is no wrong way to pray. The thing that a “foolish woman” would do to tear down her home is simply… fail to pray.
Why a pattern of prayer is important
There are so many ways that prayer is powerful in the life of a believer. Thousands of books have been written on this topic.
But I think there are a few specific ways that a pattern of prayer is helpful for a Christian mom in particular.
1. You're busy.
Christian moms are busy. You are busy. Your family time is precious, and your schedule is probably jam-packed.
This is why having a pattern of prayer is especially important!
Prayer matters, and you don’t want to let the busyness of life keep you from it. The more that prayer is a regular pattern in your day, the more likely it is that you will truly cover your home, your family, and your relationships with prayer.
2. Wisdom only comes through prayer.
Proverbs 14:1 is all about wisdom. What does a wise woman do? She builds up her home. What does a foolish woman do? She tears it down with her own hands.
Okay, so you want to be the wise woman. Of course you do! The question is… how do you get there? How do you become this wise woman, and successfully build up your home?
… You pray.
- Do you want to be intentional in how you approach Christian family life? You’ll need to pray for wisdom and insight.
- Are you struggling with forgiveness in your family relationships? Prayer gives healing nothing else can give.
- Is your mind (or heart) so distracted by the busy things of life that you can’t give focused positive attention to your people? Prayer will help you prioritize and shift your focus.
- Do your words give the encouragement and support that you hope to give? You need to pray for the Holy Spirit to shape and lead your words.
Everything that we have looked at in this Proverbs 14:1 series comes down to having wisdom.
“If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.” (James 1:5) As you seek to be a wise woman building up her home, ask God to give you the wisdom that you need.
3. Only God can change hearts.
Finally, consider this reality of prayer: if you want change in your family relationships, the Holy Spirit is the One who can actually create change.
God changes hearts. Jesus changes lives. If you want deep, heart-level, long-lasting change… you need to pray.
Yes, God wants you to take action. He wants you to notice areas where your family needs to be built up, and do what you can to make that happen. But He never wants you to try to do that apart from him!
You have responsibility for your own actions, but you cannot control other people. Your husband, your children – they have a huge influence over what your Christian home life is like, and yet you cannot control if they change, how they grow, or how fast they will mature.
But Someone can.
Let God be God, and pray for his holy work to be happening in the lives of your loved ones.
How to develop a pattern of prayer
Perhaps you are already praying for your family and home on a regular basis. That’s great! The ideas below might add some extra opportunities into your current pattern of prayer.
But if you don’t feel very consistent or purposeful right now in how you pray for your family, you’re not alone. It can be difficult to start praying regularly.
First, let me encourage you to grab my FREE Bible & prayer challenge. It will provide a very simple way to get started with prayer, and help you turn this into a regular daily habit.
From there, let’s also consider the method of your prayer time.
Some moms like to speak their prayers and continue on with their devotional time. Nothing is written down. That’s fine!
Other moms prefer to keep a prayer journal. They write down prayer requests and then review them regularly to see how to continue on in prayer. This is a great option as well.
Still other moms like a daily template to guide their prayer time. (Actually, this is one of my most popular items in my Etsy shop – a daily prayer journaling printable.) Following a guide can be helpful to feel confident that you aren’t forgetting something important.
At the end of the day, it’s not about the method of your prayer time. The important thing is that you are actually praying for the people and things that are important to you.
10 opportunities for a mom to pray
As you consider the 10 ideas below, you’ll probably notice that this is NOT an exhaustive list. You might already have habits or patterns that work for you but which are not on this list. That’s great!
But, you also might look at these ideas and think it feels overwhelming. This is also not a “must-do” list that will define if you are successful or not as a Christian mom!
These are ideas. A jumping off point. The key is, find regular things that happen in your busy life, and use that as reminders for prayer.
Here are 10 times that I find are pretty regular, and which help prompt me toward prayer for my family, my home, and my people.
- You can pray at meals.
- Pray when your child comes to you crying or upset.
- When someone is complaining or feeling stressed, pause to pray over that issue.
- Pray silently as you get into bed at night.
- Use a family worship time as a time for family prayer. (And if you’re in our Patreon community, check out the private podcast episode about how to get this started!)
- When you are together at church or on your way to church, pray as a family.
- Have prayer cards to pull out and pray through (on notecards, or as a picture or reminder on your phone).
- Use your personal quiet time for prayer.
- Pray when you leave the home or are driving somewhere – with or without your family.
- Start a couples prayer time with your husband to pray for your family together. My husband and I love using this devotional from Nancy Guthrie.
Finding your pattern of prayer
There are plenty of ways to go about it, but ultimately, only one thing really matters.
Pray for your family and your home.
When you think about them, pray. If you’re feeling frustrated, overwhelmed, or any other emotion, pray. At the times when family life is joyful, pray. When it’s hard, pray.
There is no wrong time or wrong way to pray.
If you want to be a wise woman building up her home… pray.
Listen to Episode #123
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