Who am I?  What is my purpose?  What am I meant to do?  These are age old questions that people have asked themselves for centuries.  And today we have so many voices speaking to us through media, friends, and family.  Not to mention the expectations placed on us.

Our children may want to be a doctor one day and a fireman the next.  They may want to dress a certain way and identify with a particular group of people.

And in the midst of it all, our children may lose who they are, who God created them to be.

I was one of the lucky ones.  I knew from the time I was in elementary school that I wanted to be a teacher.  I don’t know, I guess God dropped that in my heart. During high school, I did a lot of praying about my future.  I would pray and read college catalogs to make sure that teaching was indeed what I was suppose to do.  I taught 11 years in a combination of public and private schools, homeschooled my children and was the director of a homeschool co-op.

Today I still consider myself a teacher, only my platform is different.  I teach through writing.

When my children were young, I began praying for them, asking God to develop their God given talents. We were a homeschooling family and I tried to incorporate their interests and gifts into our homeschool as much as possible.  My daughter is an English major and is teaching English today. Her curriculum was heavy on writing and reading classic curriculum.  When praying over my son, I felt that he was more of a techie, and specifically the sound aspect.  When he was 11, I talked our children’s pastor into letting him work the sound booth in children’s church for the Wednesday night services.  She agreed and allowed him to only turn the sound on and to play the music.  From that starting point, he learned the sound booth.  He then became interested in music. So we began music lessons and he is now leading praise and worship for our youth group.

The following are some verses to pray over your children if they are struggling with who they are, simply plug in their names and believe.  God will help them find themselves.

For I will pour water not the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground;  I will pour out my spirit on your offspring (ask God to pour out his spirit on your child) and my blessing on your descendants.  They will spring up like grass in a meadow, like popular trees by flowing streams.  Isaiah 44: 3-4    (ask God to pour out his spirit on your child)

I wish that all of you were as I am.  But each of you has your own gift from God;  one has this gift, another has that.  I Corinthians 7:7 (ask God to reveal your child’s specific gift)

Do you see someone skilled in their work?  They will serve before kings;  they will not serve before officials of low rank.  Proverbs 22:19  (ask God to help you child excel in their gift)

We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us…  Romans 12:6  (pray for specific gifts)

For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.  Romans 11:29  (God will do what He set out to do with our children)

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the other of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadow.  James 1:17

THIS IS PART ONE OF A TWO PART SERIES.  TOMORROW’S POST WILL BE ABOUT PRAYING THAT YOUR CHILD BECOMES WHO THEY ARE IN CHRIST.