Prayerful parental expectations

Our two oldest children - Mercedes & Emerson - will be returning from a youth missions trip to Mexico on Wednesday.  Sometime quite early on Tuesday morning they are going to climb into a van and begin a 30 hour ride back home.  Although they will have been gone for almost two weeks, I anticipate that within two days our household patterns and rhythms will return back to normal (I think the volume level will be back to normal within a matter of minutes).  I looking forward to their return and our family falling back into familiar patterns.  I've missed them, and it has definitely been different not having them in the house.

But while I'm looking forward to the quick return to familiar family rhythms after their arrival, I am praying that in some ways life will never be the same again for them, and us.  I know that during their time down in Mexico they were involved in ministry and activities that served to strengthen the good work that was already in place (thank you Joel & Sally!).  Their efforts will definitely bear fruit because of the ministry that went on prior to their arrival, and the ministry that will go on long after they have returned home.  And as the pastor of a local church that sends out people and teams on missions this is extremely important to me.  But as a parent, I must honestly admit that the focus of my prayers is what will have transpired in the hearts of my own children.

Here are some of the areas I have been praying that my kids will experience growth in:

• an enlarged worldview and love for the local church in it's different expressions
• an increased faith as they have seen God provide for them, protect them, and minister through them
• an increased clarity and passion to pursue God's great calling on their lives
• an enlarged sense of adventure and willingness to simply 'go for it'
• a heightened awareness of God's goodness and His pleasure over their lives
• a more intimate devotional and prayer life
• placing a demand on the anointing of Holy Spirit in their lives and the gifts He has made available to them

It is going to be good to have them home!

Comments

[Wendy LeBlanc]

Thanks for sharing that Pastor Scott.
I just arrived from Senegal Africa a few weeks ago and every aspect that you mentioned in prayer is excactly what I took from my own experience. I know that my parents were praying just like you were for your kids. God is definetly faithful!
Blessings