the astounding power of prayed scripture (part 2)

Part two of my post on praying specific scriptures over your children.  Find part one here.

Here's what I really want to tell you.  The verse I chose for Wyatt was Psalm 119:2, and I wrote it on his traced hand like this: Teach Wyatt the wisdom of keeping Your statues, Lord, and let him to seek You with all his heart.

As I said in part one of this post, I started praying this over Wyatt at night during his tuck-in time, and whenever I had specific prayer time for my kids.  Lest I sound more disciplined than I am, this specific prayer time usually happens between the time the alarm goes off and I drag myself out of bed, or between the time I collapse in my bed and then fall asleep.  I'm a work in progress, for sure.

I recorded what happened with Wyatt in the journal I keep for him, and this is the abbreviated version:

Dear Wyatt,Out of nowhere tonight, you asked me why we grow old and die. I answered that this life isn't meant to go forever, but our next life with Jesus will be forever. You said that you wanted to be with Jesus, and I said yes, Jesus wants you too.  Then I told you we get to be with Jesus when we believe and admit that we are sinners and that Jesus loves us and can save us from our sins.  I told you how we can pray to Jesus to tell Him we love Him, that we want Him to forgive us, and want Him to give Him our obedience.  You wanted to know if you're supposed to tell Jesus this when you "get dead," and I said, "no you can do it whenever you want to."  You said, "Yes, I want to be with Jesus.  Yes, I want to pray."  I said, "right now?," and you said, "Yes, I want to do that, I want to be with Jesus." Your voice was so genuine.  So Ava and I got down on our knees with you and we all prayed.  Your face was glowing when we finished.Later, when your dad came home, you said, "I didn't know how to say it but it just came into my mind."  Dear son, Jesus is like that so often!  He slips into our thoughts and makes us better without us even understanding what happened.  We just feel His call.  I am so grateful tonight that you heard Jesus calling you and you responded, even if you don’t fully understand, even if you don’t remember this. . .

To celebrate, I bought Wyatt one of those fancy Mylar balloons.  My kids always think the balloons are so cool and I never buy them because $7 for a balloon??  I'd much rather spend that money on a venti latte healthy vegetables for my children.  I found the balloon idea on The Homespun Heart (score another one for my incessant web-surfing habit.)  In the post, the parents get their daughter a butterfly, to symbolize her changing into a new creation.  I found a frog for Wyatt, which I think works the same way: e.g. weak little tadpole turns into a strong 4-legged jumper.  The frog does look unfortunately grumpy about his condition, but Wyatt didn't mind.

I'm also making him a bookmark for his Bible with the date and a sweet blessing poem I found here.  The author wrote it for her daughter and agreed that I could use it for Wyatt.  I cannot find the direct link any more, unfortunately, but I included the words of the poem at the end of this post.

I want to wrap up this novel by saying that I've always been a little uncomfortable with children confessing faith so young, and tried hard not to put any pressure Wyatt and Ava, maybe even stall them a little.  I ended up feeling more uncomfortable with the idea of putting off a child who spontaneously pursues Jesus.  When I shared this concern with a friend, she shared with me a beautiful quote from Patricia St John's autobiography (affiliate link):

When a little child turns to God in sincerity, how much does he really understand? Probably not very much; just a sense of security and belonging; probably not much more than those children understood who ran to Christ on earth and felt His hands laid on their heads. He may even forget the experience and, in later years, imagine that nothing happened.
      The importance of it lies in the strength and faithfulness of the love that received him and that will be forever drawing him back to his first resting-place. My mother believed strongly in early conversions and, like those mothers of long ago, she 'brought her little children to Jesus.'

And a bit later, Patricia quotes a children's evangelist:

'A little child needs a little child's Savior. A growing child needs a growing child's Savior.' Over and over, in each stage of our growth He reveals Himself in the very way that we need Him.

My sweet son, I am so delighted for you to have this anchor in your life already.