In our walk with God we tend to win great spiritual battles but fail miserably on the family front. Our time and focus are so ministry-oriented and work-oriented that we forget the people who are closest to us. And then there are many of us who in the pursuit to walk the intimate walk with God take the family for granted. Both these sets of mindsets leave the family’s growth and existence to the family and unknowingly don’t give the support needed. Work, ministry and intimate life with God is not the problem here it is the priorities that we make in our life.

The mindset that walking your spiritual life along with children and family is waste of time, has to go!

The Bible has many such examples who did great exploits for God but failed on the family front. King David lays a great impression on many lives and one can never get bored of listening to his stories and learning from them. However, his family life is discouraging and gets us to retrospect the reason.
King David was the most significant king of Israel and his mention to date creates an aura. He won the victory over Goliath and many other challenges. He handled kings, empires, battles etc. with great wisdom and dependence on God but he could not handle the situations between his children.
David needed a mediator to restore his relationship with his son Absalom, which did not last long and resulted in overthrowing David from the throne and kingdom at the end of it the son loses his life leaving the father to live in regret. (2 Samuel 14-18)
King David failed to console Tamar and neither did he confront Amnon for his wicked act against Tamar. How heartbroken could Tamar have been to get this indifferent response from her father! However, as a father, King David had to bear the consequences of his carelessness and indifferent parenting. (2 Samuel 13)

A true, intimate relationship with God should not cut us off from the world that we live in. Instead, the intimacy should spread into the family and the world like a sweet fragrance that we enjoy our company together – God and Our Family. It is God’s heart to enjoy time with His family then why would our intimacy with Him hinder our relationship with our family and children? Our relationship with God the Father should help us help our children cope with their failures rather than make them a victim of the consequences. Our relationship with God will teach us to handle our children’s weaknesses the way God handles ours.

Nothing is lost yet, just as King David enquired of the Lord about how to handle his battles of war we too can fully depend on God the Father to help us deal with our relationship with our children. Let’s begin today and make up for the time lost.

Therefore we first got to pray for our children for God’s protection over their spiritual life, that they withstand temptations that come their way. Job in the Bible had children who knew the living God but it is written that they partied a lot and after every party Job prayed for them.

We cannot stop just praying for them. We also got to pray with them.

Guiding our children in the ways of the Lord doesn’t mean just disciplining, rebuking and correcting alone. Recognizing their mistakes and turning away from them is one lesson we have to give our children in love. The way our Heavenly Father gently guides us through repentance, we as parents got to teach our children to take responsibility for their mistakes and repent. Repent, as in be sorry for the wrongdoings and come to a place of confidence, knowing that their sins are forgiven.

This we can be done as we pray with them. When we do this they are convinced first, that we have forgiven them and then they see the Heavenly Father’s heart. It is very difficult to see a forgiving God through condemning and unforgiving parents. They begin to understand that they are loved and accepted but not their wrongdoings. Pray with them for the assurance of the forgiveness of sins in the arms of the Heavenly Father. Pray with them for the assurance of acceptance in His Kingdom no matter what they have done.

When our children are covered by prayers and when they experience the power of forgiveness from God and us they will stand boldly against every battle of life. And as they learn to overcome their personal battles they are getting ready to win great spiritual battles along with us.

Very similar to Prophet Samuel, who committed the same mistake as Eli and appoint his sons to succeed him without recognizing their call. And as known, they too turned out to be greedy and corrupt.

In His love, the Holy Spirit reveals to us and helps us recognize these inherited mistakes but we shun them by saying, “It happened earlier in this family who can stop it?” The blood of Jesus can! Jesus died and rose again to break every bondage that is tying us down and that includes every inherited curse or mistake.

Pray with your spouse and break every inherited tie that is binding your family. Pray that you as parents should not repeat the mistakes that your elders have done to you. You are the chosen one to break inherited mistakes from your family. Do it today!

Striving alone in this spiritual warfare is vain. When God has given us a family with children how powerful is that to stand up together against the powers of darkness! In Matthew 18:1 Jesus encourages us to pray together and assures us of His response but we are searching for company to win battles outside our home when all the arrows are with us in-house. As we pray for our children and pray with them we instill within them the boldness to face not only their challenges but also the challenges they face as a family and church. They get more confident and focused as to what to pray for.