My kids go back to school tomorrow. This mamma’s heart has been prayerful as the hour draws nearer. I suppose I’ve prayed a fair amount for my kids over the years. I’d like to say I prayed faithfully, regularly, consistently for them. But I haven’t always. Truth be told, sometimes I just forgot and thought that their growth and development was my responsibility. That somehow my words of wisdom or our consistent discipline or a loving environment (or a combination thereof) would be the things that would keep them.

Don’t get me wrong, I know those things are important. But, if I had it to do over again, I think I would have spent a little less time talking at to them and a little more talking about them – to God. I would have done a little less convincing them of truth and a little more asking the very Embodiment of Truth Himself to flood their lives with His presence.

If I had it to do over again, I’d also change the content of my prayers. Too many of my prayers over the years have revolved around their success and safety. When I think of success I think of things like good grades, favor in the eyes of their teachers, true friends, athletic and social prowess, and maybe winning the Lions Club award or something like that. And, of course safety means things like no broken bones, no stalkers (please God, no stalkers!), no lonely playground experiences, no bullies, no drugs or sex or bad words, and no horrible experiences on the bus. I mean, what loving parent doesn’t pray those kinds of prayers? Don’t we all pretty much want our kids to be safe and successful?  Of course we do.

But, I took the summer to study the content of the prayers of the apostle Paul. Many of his prayers for the earliest Christians are recorded on the pages of the New Testament. They are tucked here and there in his letters to the young, growing, first-century churches in the Middle East. They are prayers full of power and poetry.

And now praying with such a focus on my kids’ success and safety seems… well, it seems small. And shortsighted.

I think the way Paul prayed says a lot about what he believed to be most important. When tender-hearted Paul prayed for the Christians he loved with a fierce, fatherly kind of love, he rarely prayed for their safety or their success. In fact, I think maybe I can say he never prayed for those things – even though the people to whom he was writing were often experiencing awful hardships and suffering. He himself was certainly acquainted with hardship and sorrow and physical ailments and unjust treatment and betrayal. But, he was no schmuck. One of the most educated and successful men of his time, he had been at the pinnacle of his career when Jesus met him on the Road to Damascus. He knew success and safety. If he had believed those were truly the greatest needs of his churches, he certainly could have prayed it for them.

But, he didn’t. More often than not, he prayed with his heart set on a greater hope. The reality of eternity and its Hero were at the center of all His prayers. His prayers were urgent, passionate pleas for gospel-centered, God-movement in every heart of every believer. And they were always couched in grandeur of all that God had already done for His own.

And so, as this Mamma prays for her kiddos – as I think about the challenges that await Madison at the middle school and Caleb at the high school – I’m praying for more than their safety and success. For tomorrow, I’m praying the very prayer that Paul prayed for the Christians at Ephesus all those years ago:

‘[Caleb and Madison], I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation [why, you say?], so that you may know Him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may KNOW [1] the hope to which He has called you, [2] the glorious inheritance in His holy people, and [3] His incomparably great power for us who believe. [And by the way kids,] That power is the SAME as the mighty strength He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at the right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but in the one to come.’

Will I pray for their safety and success? I’m certain I will. I But not like I’ll pray for these things.