A better prayer

When friends have babies I often pray that the newborn would never know a day in their life when they don't know that God is their loving Father in heaven.  I have prayed that prayer many times.  And not only for newborns.  I continue to pray this for various children, including our own boys and our godchildren.

I have been reflecting on how I became a Christian lately.  And I have heard my husband talk about his journey as a Christian a couple of times during the last week as well.  We share quite similar stories.  At one level there was a defining moment for me.  It was 13th August 1987, about 4pm, sitting by the river.  Ironically I skipped a lecture, the only lecture I EVER skipped at university*, to sit by the river to talk to God and give my life to Him.  I remember it as clear as day.

Yet despite this very particular moment, I have always know God as my Father in heaven.  I cannot remember a time when I did not acknowledge and love God.  My parents didn't go to church but they did send my sister and I to Sunday School each week.  And God in His providence always surrounded me with people who loved Him, even after the days of Sunday School - teachers, friends - there was always someone there asking a hard question, keeping me thinking, encouraging me along and as I now know, praying for me.  As a child my relationship with God was vibrant.  In my teenage years that relationship lost some of its vibrancy.  But I never lost a sense of God.  It was more a case of Him being in heaven and me being here in my life on earth.  Distance...but I never turned away.

And as I have heard my husband say twice in the last week of his story, while I can pinpoint an exact moment when I put myself under God's authority, it is actually hard to discount the nearly twenty preceding years when God continued to be very real and it was only my (I now understand) sinful pride that kept me from fully apprehending what it means to be a child of God.  I still had a relationship with God and He was very much at work in my life, even if I didn't fully grasp it.

I realised this week that during my first 20 years I lived the very prayer I pray for newborns.  There has never been a day in my life that I didn't know that God is my loving Father in heaven.  And for that I am deeply thankful.  But it took 20 years, a handful of faithful people who prayed for me and kept badgering me and also a series of events that gradually eroded my confidence in the things in which I had previously placed my security to understand that that God is my loving Father in heaven and Jesus is my friend, Lord and Saviour.  And I need both, not just the first.

So this week I am praying a better prayer for our boys and for our godchildren and for the various other children who are often found in my prayers, that they would never know a day when they don't know that God is their loving Father in heaven and that Jesus is their friend, Lord and Saviour.  This seems to be a better prayer.


* I went on in that particular unit to fail a mid-semester test - the only assessment I ever failed at university - and barely scraped a pass for the subject - the only subject I ever came close to failing.  Ah, Sociology of Education.  It should have been so interesting...

Hooray for Godparents # 3

So this is the bit where we really say HOORAY FOR GODPARENTS because here are...

Four Ways Godchildren can Bless their Godparents

1. Pray.
Encourage your child to pray for their godparents every now and then - a simple prayer of thanksgiving when they have been blessed by their godparents and simple prayers of intercession if their godparents are facing a difficult situation and it is appropriate to share this information.  Over time, as capacity to pray grows, encouraged your children to keep their godparents in their prayers. And at odd times engineer a way to help your children let their godparents know they are praying for them - what an encouragement that will be.

2. Remember Christmas and birthdays.
Encourage your child to draw a picture, make a card, send a card, write a letter, cook something, make something...for their godparents' birthdays and for Christmas.  We try, each year, to give our boys' godparents an up to date photo of the boys at Christmas time...although sometimes it happens well after Christmas if the run up to 25th December gets all too hard.

3. Share the news.
Keep the godparents in the loop.  If something amazing happens, let them know.  If possible, get the children to let them know.  Share the news of the first lost tooth, the broken arm, the standing ovation at the ballet concert, the excellent exam result, the removal of the training wheels.  And keep the godparents informed when there are difficulties too - anxiety about an exam, a reluctance to attend church, troubles at school - so that they can pray specifically.

4. Encourage gratitude.
Help the children grow in awareness of the blessings of godparents - their prayers, their gifts, their time, their concern.  And build up in the children an armoury of ways to say thank you - actually speaking those words ("thank you!"), a card or picture, a phone call or email or text or..., and prayers of thanksgiving.  It is good to cultivate gratitude in any case and HOORAYS FOR GODPARENTS - priceless.

To our boys' godparents - our heartfelt thanks. 

We are thankful to God for the way you love and care for them

and for the way you truly show how wonderful it is to be members of God's family.

Mx 

Hooray for Godparents # 2

Four Ways Godparents can Bless their Godchildren

1. Pray.
* Pray for your godchild's salvation as they travel through the stages of knowing Jesus as their friend, then Saviour and then Lord. 
* Pray for their love of God's Word, for their love of prayer and for their love of attending church.
* Pray that they will find a friend or two of their own age who is walking the same journey and pray that they will be  a great witness to their other friends and not be led astray.
* Pray for their day to day lives.
* Pray for their future - to press on in their relationship with God - that this might be their main purpose - and for a spouse who loves God.
* Pray for gratitude in the good times and grace and a godly perspective in the hard times.
* Pray for their parents - as they raise your godchild, for their relationship with God and for their marriage.

2. Celebrate Christmas, Easter and othe Significant Moments.
* Make the most of Christmas and Easter - this is your moment.  Our boys' godparents gave us an advent calendar for our first son's first Christmas and every year, just before December, we receive the goodies for the pockets - readings, questions, activities, a book to follow along and so.
* This year we started reciprocating (we're a bit slow around here) with fifteen empty eggs with readings leading up to Easter.  Next year I aim to be a bit more organised and less "thrown together" about this.
* If that is too complex, give books (colouring in books, activity books, story books and as the children get older, detailed books about Christmas and Easter.)  Find some way to promote Christmas and Easter every year.
* Send a card each year to mark the anniversary of their baptism/dedication.  If you are godparenting in an unofficial capacity, choose a random time of the year to send a card (at the same time each year) with the specific purpose of reminding them that you are praying for them and to encourage them along in their journey.
* Send cards, texts, emails...or make a phone call to mark other important occasions like starting school or going on a first overseas holiday or getting braces put their teeth or doing an important exam or...

3. Remember birthdays.
* Presents are good.  I try to give something with a Christian slant to our godchildren but I mix it up with games, toys, clothes and the like.  I have a friend who gives her goddaughter new (funky)  pyjamas every birthday.
* In your birthday card don't forget to mention that you pray for your godchild often and to spur them on as they get to know Jesus as their friend, Saviour and Lord.
* Give them a framed photo of yourself for their own room with something like "I pray for you" written on the frame.

4. Be a mentor. (This works best if you live in the same city!)
* In their early days, visit a lot.  Make sure they know you.
* Be a great role model.  As our boys' godparents promised, show them that being in God's family is great.
* Talk about Jesus with them. I have a friend who makes a point of always slipping something about God into conversations when her children's friends are around.  She wants to be known as "that lady who always talks about the Bible."
* As they get older, take your godchild out every now and then - for food, to a movie, to something they like to do.  Hang out and give them every opportunity to chat, ask questions and open up.
* Again, as they get older, make sure they have your phone number, mobile number, email address, that they are friends with you on Facebook - whatever is easy, quick and contemporary at the time to make yourself available.

Any other ideas?

List caveat: Don't attempt to do everything on this list by the end of the week.  In fact, don't attempt to do everything on this list.  Most especially, don't be overwhelmed. Choose one or two things that will work for you. 

Hooray for Godparents # 1

Are you a godparent?  Do your children have godparents?  Maybe you don't have children or godchildren but you might have a niece or nephew.  Or a special little friend at church.  Maybe you have a special bond with a certain friend's child but it was just never formalised. 

Godparents, official or otherwise, have a great opportunity to be a rich blessing in the lives of their godchildren.  Here are the promises our boys' godparents*  made to them both.

1. To pray for our boys.

2. To be a witness and example of what it is to be a part of the Christian family and how wonderful that is.

3. To encourage our boys to join that family.

4. To encouraged their parents to raise them to be part of that family.

That is a breathtaking set of promises and I might add, they are doing a wonderful job.  We are deeply thankful to God for them.

So coming up...four practical ways godparents can bless their godchildren and four ways godchildren can bless their godparents.

* Our boys share the same godparents.