Episode Details

It’s back-to-school time. Today, I have friends walking their baby into kindergarten for the very first time. And I have other friends helping their baby move into a college dorm.

Those two days feel worlds apart… until you’ve lived them.

Those of us a little farther down the road know the truth. One day you’re zipping a backpack that’s almost bigger than they are. The next day you’re hugging them goodbye in a parking lot, trying not to cry until they can’t see you anymore.

The days are long. The years are unbelievably short.

And that’s exactly how it’s supposed to be. We aren’t raising children to keep them. We’re raising them to release them. But before that day comes, God gives us something incredibly sacred.

Influence.

During the school year, our children will spend nearly half of their waking hours at school. Nearly half.

Half of their conversations.
Half of their friendships.
Half of their victories.
Half of their disappointments.
Half of the voices speaking into their lives.

As moms, that realization can make us want to tighten our grip. We want to protect them from every hurt, every bad influence, every disappointment, every temptation. But we can’t. We can’t walk beside them every minute.

God can.

He’ll be in the classroom before they arrive.
He’ll be standing in the hallway when they feel alone.
He’ll be at the lunch table when they’re wondering where they belong.
He’ll be on the bus ride, at practice, during the test, in the hard conversation, in the moment they need courage, and in the split second when they have to choose right over wrong.

There isn’t one place your child will go where God cannot meet them.

But here’s the beautiful and really really important thing… We get to invite Him there.

We’ll buy the new shoes.
We’ll pack the lunches.
We’ll label the notebooks.

But before we send them out the door… Let’s send them covered in prayer.

Our my greatest assignment as a mother was never to control my children. It is to continually talk to God about them.

Not lecture them more.
Not yell louder.
Not worry harder.
Prayer is the most powerful thing you will ever do for my children.

James 5:16, “The prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.”

Do we actually believe that? If we do, then let’s pray like it.

One of my favorite pictures of bold prayer comes from Joshua and the walls of Jericho. Jericho looked impossible. The walls were too high. Too thick. Too strong. Humanly speaking, there was no way through. But God didn’t hand Joshua a cannon to blast through the walls – He gave him marching orders.

“Walk around it.” Once a day for six days. Seven times on the seventh day. After the 7th circle on the 7th day, have the priest blow their horns, let the people shout, and those walls will just fall down.

Read the story in Joshua chapter 6. The battle plan from God sounded foolish. Marching doesn’t knock down walls. Trumpets don’t break stone.

But obedience invited the power of God. And when God’s people obeyed, the walls that looked impossible suddenly came crashing down.

Ever since reading The Circle Maker, I’ve loved the picture of praying circles. Sometimes I literally walk around the thing I’m praying for.

Sometimes I simply picture it in my mind. Not because there’s something magical about circles. There’s not. The power isn’t in the walking. The power is in the God we’re walking with. The circle simply reminds me that I’m surrounding something with persistent, believing prayer.

Mama… This school year, your Jericho may be the very building your child walks into every morning. So go make a circle. Walk around that school. Pray over every classroom. Pray over every teacher. Pray over every coach. Pray over every bus. Pray over every lunch t