Mark Batterson, pastor of National Community Church in Washington, D.C. has written a new book: Praying Circles around Your Children. In this book, He expands on the concept in his book The Circle Maker of the legend of Honi, the Circle Maker.
“Pray hard. Pray bold. Pray through.”
Mark equates the drawing of Prayer Circles to praying without ceasing. He says that praying circles is all about resolving in your heart that you will pray until the day you die-ALAT- “as long as it takes”.
I agree that the most important thing we, as parents, can do for our children is to pray. Pray for them. Teach them to pray. Pray with them and ask them to pray for us.
Here he presents a simple and clear method to pray for and teach our children to pray. As a young parent, my prayers leaned toward Arrow Prayers. You know, the ones that speed to God in the middle of the crisis: “Help!” It wasn’t until I had been a parent for a while that I began to pray with scripture when praying for my own children.
His five prayer circles include:
- The importance of praying promises from scripture for our children
- Making prayer lists for our children
- Creating prayer mantras to pray over our children
- Forming prayer circles with other parents
- Praying through the Bible for each child individually and specifically
The one place where I find myself balking is the prayer mantra. The word, mantra, comes from the original Sanskrit meaning of a sacred message or text, charm, or spell. It is the word used in Hinduism and Buddhism to indicate any sacred word or syllable used as an object of concentration; and embodying some aspect of spiritual power. I equate it with another religion. This word has become a part of the vernacular of our culture; but I have a problem with its use in relation to our prayers. However, I do know the inherent power of the Word of the Lord-spoken and prayed.
The importance of praying scripture for and with our children ”your children need to hear and see you praying”, the concept of praying through the Bible with our child in mind and praying certain scriptures that apply specifically to our child’s personality are the jewels in this book. Because Mark’s bottom line is praying for God’s Will and for His Glory, I can say this little book would be an asset in any parent’s library.
get your own copy here
Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The opinions in the review are my own. They have also graciously given me a couple of copies to give away to others.
If you are interested in receiving a copy of the book, please let me know in the comments.