A PARENT’S PRAYER FOR HIS CHILDREN

12 That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth; that our daughters may be as corner stones, polished after the similitude of a palace: Psalms 144:12 (KJV)

 

            This was a prayer of David.  I call it a parent’s prayer but it could also be a prayer of the king for the children of his kingdom.  Surely it included his children at the very least.  He longed to see them as children that displayed the fact that they were children of God.  Is that not what we long for in our own children?  Let us take a moment and consider this portion of David’s prayer? 

            First observe his prayer concerning the sons; “That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth.”  Do we not want our sons to show maturity even at an early age?  We want to see them as plants not as weeds.  Weeds need be pulled up and cast away from the garden.  God bless our sons to be plants that are of value to all around them.  David desired that the children in Psalm 128:3 be as olive plants around the table.  The distinguishing factor of the olive plant was that its oil was so useful making the plant very valuable.  May our sons be as plants not as thorns?  Please Lord; let our sons be a blessing and not a curse?  David desired that the sons be growing plants and not as diseased and withered plants.  Isn’t it a blessing to see our sons loving The Lord and growing in The Lord?  Nothing breaks the heart of the parent like a son that is wasting his life away living for the devil.  We see the potential in our children and when they do not try to reach that potential it really tears at our heart.  God help our children to bring forth good fruit and not to bear fruit of poisonous or unhealthy nature?  Who wants their son to be the type of child that other parents are uncomfortable or afraid to allow their children to be around?  I think that we would agree with the Psalmist and ask God “that our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth.”

            Then observe his prayer concerning the daughters; “that our daughters may be as corner stones, polished after the similitude of a palace.”  You may not think that he is asking for much to want his daughters to be as a rock but he may have been looking at one of the perfectly cut corner stones as he prayed this prayer.  In fact that is what polished means in the Hebrew.  It means cut.  We would pray that our daughters would be a spiritual mainstay and guide.  The corner stone was the guide for the rest of the wall and such is my prayer for my daughters that they are so established in Christ that they could be a guide for their children and others that may be around them.  Lord, make our daughters women professing godliness?  May they be living temples for The Lord?  May they be “as corner stones, polished after the similitude of a palace?”

Yours in Christ,

 

Brother Randy Burtram

 

   (Originally published June 29, 2014)