 You are a child of God and love and God loves you. He cherishes you and he values you so, so much. And so do we and we're so glad that you are part of our family. We're so glad you're joining us on Hope Today. It is Tom and I, Amy is off today and we are gonna be having a really important conversation about children. Yeah, children. Oh, you love them, you know? And then they make it crazy too. Sort of doesn't end even after they're adults. But, you know, our responsibilities as parents, it really can feel overwhelming. I know, I always tell guys, it's like, I don't know, the women seem much more ready than the guys do. I don't know, but, you know, but, you know, when it comes to prayer, how do we pray? How do we know what to say? How can we truly pray for our kids rather than fall into some sort of spiral of worry? Well, Sharon Janes is gonna be with us and she's gonna share how to pray specific scriptures over your children. She has got such a nice system. It's called praying for your children from head to toe and it is gonna be so encouraging to you to learn just her way of bringing the scriptures alive for our kids. I think that it's so beautiful. So whether if you have children of your own, you have grandchildren, great grandchildren, I think it is so important that we pray over our children. You know, Tom, I have friends that they've told me about like dear friends about motherhood and just the challenges and the hardships. But one thing I'm just so proud of my friends is how they are just bringing Jesus into their lives and helping them to understand how important it is to have Jesus in their hearts and to walk into that. So just not even just going to church and having them in an environment but also like praying at night and talking to them and making them understand how valuable they are to God. You know, it's funny because I was nervous as anything at the prospect of being a dad, really I was. I mean, I was like, I was never around small kids because all my siblings and me were all like born within four years of each other. So we were all like the same age growing up. So I was never around young kids and I'm like, what do I do with this baby? You know, I was like so, so challenging but it was wonderful and wonderful. I love being a dad, still love being a dad and a granddad but there's a challenge to it as well. And you know, we don't want to spiral into worry. We want to make sure that we Sidney, you know just really entrust our children to God. If you definitely, and it's such a blessing, you know for the parents that are out there that you have such a responsibility to pray over your children to lead them in the ways of the Lord. And so even we just want to encourage you today that maybe you are a mom or a dad or your grandparent and you're just struggling a little bit. We want to give you our prayer line that you can call at anytime at 888-665-4483 so we can encourage you as you are walking along the process of raising your kids in Jesus. Absolutely, please pray with our prayer partners as they pray for your children because children are a blessing from God. They're such a precious gift and we always want what's best for them including praying for them constantly. If you're a parent, I know you've been praying for your children. Well, Sharon Janes is our next guest and in her book, Praying for Your Child from Head to Toe, she shares powerful and effective prayers that will both bless you and your children tremendously. Sharon, welcome to hope today. Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here today. Well, let me ask you about that topic. What was, how are you drawn to that topic of praying for your children? Well, actually about 10 years ago I had another book come out called Praying for Your Husband from Head to Toe and it's really about covering, it was about covering your husband in scriptural prayer and moms kept saying you've got to do this for children. So that's how that came about. And as soon as I had a child just like you, I'm like, no, what do I do? What do I do? And so I began to pray just like you did and sometimes my mind would wander and I think, oh, I've got to call this person. Oh, gotta get back. Sorry, Lord, I'd get back to praying again. And then there were times where I just did not know what to pray. So I started praying scripture. You know, we talk about covering people in prayer. So this is a pattern of prayer to cover someone in prayer from their mind and what they think about all the way down to their feet and the path they take. You know, when Jesus's disciples said, Lord, teach us to pray. And he taught them what we now call the Lord's prayer. I don't think he meant that to be a rote prayer but really it was just a pattern of prayer. We praise God, we thank God, we pray for Him to meet our needs, confess our sin, we praise Him again. So this is a pattern of prayer that helps us to cover someone from top, the mind they think about all the way down to their feet. Yeah, and we're gonna go through that in just a minute. I wanted to ask you, as you've talked to parents, as you've talked to mothers, dads around, what are their top concerns for their children? Well, you know, we only have to look at the nightly news to see what some of those concerns are. I just remember reading the statistic that there were 51 school shootings last year, 167 since 2018. I mean, when do we even start counting that? So parents are concerned about that. They're concerned about what they're seeing on the internet. The, you know, we always had peer pressure since there were two people on earth but now the peer pressure is just exponentially higher because of what they're seeing on the internet which is leading to depression with kids and suicide being the second leading cause of death for adolescents and teens. So they're concerned about that. They're concerned about the stress the kids are under. They're concerned about what they're seeing on the internet and on their cell phones. They're concerned about depression. They're concerned about gender confusion. So we're gonna pray for all of that and those are some of the concerns but here's what we do know and you guys know the scripture tells us that we are not fighting a battle of flesh and blood and yes, there is all at warfare for our children today but our battle is not against flesh and blood. It is a spiritual battle that we're fighting against the devil scheme. So if we're fighting a spiritual battle then we need to fight it with spiritual weapons and that is the word of God in prayer. Kind of like nitrogen and glycerin, you know it says that we have power to demolish strongholds through prayer and that word demolishes dunamo in the Greek which is the language of the New Testament and that's where we get our word dynamite. So nitrogen and glycerin come together, you have dynamite. We got prayer and the word of God coming together and we have power to demolish strongholds. Well, let's get right into it then. What are the 16 areas of prayer? I know you've got them again from head to toe. So let's talk about that. Maybe you could unpack a couple of those for us a story about how God has shown you this particular area. Okay, so we do start at the top. We're starting with the mind praying for that child's mind. And when I'm talking about the child I'm talking about from birth through empty nest and then into college. So we're praying for their mind. When our scripture says do not be conformed any longer to the pattern of this world but be transformed how by the renewing of your mind. So as parents, we a lot of times pray about behavior for our children but what if we could step back a little bit further and pray for their thoughts in their mind before that behavior occurs. So we're praying for the mind what they think about because we know that ultimately what they think about will determine what they are about. So praying for their mind. Then we're praying for their eyes. We're praying what they look at. What they look at is different from what they see and they might see something we can't help that but we can pray about what they look at what they focus on and what is entering their mind through the portal of their eyes. And then we're going to their ears what they're listening to who they're listening to not true. Then we're praying for their mouth and that are the words that they speak praying that they will speak life and not death. It's possible but that don't say monkey see monkey see monkey. We seem to be having a little bit of a trouble with the connection there. So we'll, you know, Sydney, there's a quote I really wanted to get Sharon to comment on that I just thought, I thought this was so key and she has it as a full page here. Prayer is not a means of gaining control over our children to whip them into shape and make them the men and women we want them to be. Prayer is a means of relinquishing control of our plans and asking God to shape our children into the men and women he wants them to be. What do you think of that? Well, I just think of, you know, I think of like when you have your children I think about my mom and just like when you raise your children and then if they become 17, 18 years old and then you're releasing the mountain to the world and just really sometimes how that anxiety that fear of just knowing what could happen in their lives. And so I think it is just so important that I love the point that Sharon was making about praying for the eyes, praying for the ears praying for the mind that is so important that I know like my, there was prayers. I know my parents were praying for me when I was out in college and just doing different things so I could walk in the ways of the Lord. So I think that is so necessary for us to pray for your children. I'm saying like us, I don't have any children yet but it's so important to pray for your children all the time yet, that's right, yet. All right, Sharon, I think we have you back now with a good connection. So we got to the mouth. I think we were about to go out of the mouth. We almost got that head covered. So we are gonna pray for their mouth and that is that the words that they speak will be pleasing. It was known death and life is in the power of the tongue. So we're gonna pray for the words that they speak. And I also wanna say, we can pray about this but they're gonna most likely repeat what they hear their parents saying. So we need to make sure we're being good examples with the words that we're speaking. We're not grumbling in the planning because if we do, that's what they're gonna talk. So pray for the words that they speak. And then the neck, earlier when we were chatting, you said this was an interesting the neck but the neck is what turns the head. So as we pray for the neck, we're praying for what turns that child's head as they make decisions. So this whole area is just about the decisions that they make. Not often thing, God gave us the gift of choice and that was pretty risky in the garden. Sometimes I just wanna just do exactly what he wants me to do and not have to choose but that's not how we set it up. So we wanna pray for our children as they make choices because we know that decisions determine destinies and choices create histories and that's whether it's their histories or world histories. Then we're praying for the shoulders. You ask what are parents worried about? Children are worried, they are so concerned. They are concerned at a very early age. My four-year-old niece I was talking about to her about her new guinea pig and then she started worrying, well, is my guinea pig gonna die and is it gonna go to heaven? I mean, just worried at four years old but kids as they grow older, their worries and concerns get larger and we're not praying that they're not going to worry because they are but we're praying that they'll know what to do with it when they do have those worries that they cast other cares to the Lord for he cares for them and the shoulders we think about carrying the whole weight of the world on our shoulders so we wanna teach them and pray for them to give that to the Lord and we're gonna pray for their heart. This is who and what they love. We're gonna pray for their back and their back is their spiritual and physical protection. So we're praying for the physical ground protection. We're also praying for the spiritual realm for protection that God's angels would encircle them, that God would surround what's surrounding them. We're gonna pray for their arms and in the Bible we say that the strong arm of God we see that strength many time is a symbol symbolized with the arm. So we're gonna pray for that that they'll be strong physically, emotionally and physically, then we're praying for their hands. We're going right down, praying for their hands. This is their gifts and talents that they'll discover what those gifts and talents are and then develop them to glorify God. We're praying for that ring finger from the time our children are born we need to start praying for those spouses. And I wanna say here too that as we're praying for the spouse we're praying for that child to grow up with them and come to know the Lord and mature in Christ whoever our child will marry. I want to just mention here that we're gonna be praying for other children too. And Sydney you mentioned that you don't have children yet we can pray for other children because I came to Christ through a praying mother but it was not my mother. I was raised in a very difficult home with a lot of there was alcohol and pornography and fighting my parents fought physically in front of me I saw things that kids should never see but there was a mother on the next block for me my best friend's mom who started praying for me when I was 12 years old and she told me about Jesus I started going to church with them and saw that there were people that talked about Jesus like they knew him personally and when I was 14 she sat me down and asked me if I was ready to accept Christ as my savior and I did and he forever changed my life but not only that both of my parents in a six year period came to Christ an amazing story I don't have time to go into but just to say yes I came to Christ because of a praying mom it just wasn't my mom so as we're praying for children we can use this to pray for any child and especially those children that will come in to our children's lives which takes us to the next landmark and that is their side that is who's walking side by side with them through life that's influential relationships we're gonna pray for their sexuality we're praying for sexual purity and we'll pray that there will not be gender identity confusion and this is straight from scripture is not my opinion on any of this we're just gonna pray straight scripture because we know when we pray the word of God we are praying the will of God next we're gonna pray for their legs and that is what they stand on that they'll stand on the truth and they're gonna have to have courage to stand on the truth in a world which is not standing on the truth which is saying something's legal one day and well something's not legal one day and then legal the next something's true one day and not true the next which we know is not true at all so they're gonna need to be able to stand on the truth throughout life because we know if you don't stand on the truth the world could be a very, very confusing place and that undertow of uncertainty can pull them out to see with a ripped out of questions in this shifting culture we live in have changed and then we're gonna pray for their knees we're gonna pray for their relationship with God that they will come to Christ at early age and they will mature in the relationship with God that they'll be humble before God and finally we're gonna pray for their feet and when we get to the feet this is the path that they take again they start making decisions very early and we're gonna pray that they make decisions that their feet will keep them on the path that God has laid out for them so that is truly covering someone in prayer from their mind all the way down to the feet and the path that they take and I wanna say this too it took us longer to explain it than it does to pray it so it might seem kind of like oh I don't have time to do this but it takes about five to seven minutes to go through these prayers each day Yeah, you have it set up and you have those different areas in there and you have a scripture for each one of those and a little prayer prompt let me ask you about the quote that I shared with Sydney when we were having that little bit of a problem with the connection but that whole thing of relinquishing our rights of what we want our children to be rather than trying to pray and to conform to what we think could you just speak to that and what that really means? Now, this is a hard thing for mamas I just wanna say that because we have those little children and we think we know what's best for them and many times we are praying and the prayers seem like we're trying to create a little mini me when that's not God's plan for our children he has a unique plan for each child that is born and so when I say that we're relinquishing control we are praying and we're saying to God Lord, you are the potter this child is the clay you have entrusted me for a very brief period of time with this child not only that but this eternal soul and I'm gonna mother this child and teach this child what I can teach them about you but ultimately you are the potter this child is the clay and we need to be praying that this child will be exactly who God wants him or her to be not who we necessarily want them to be and that's what I mean by relinquishing control and praying that this child will be conformed to the image of Christ and not some image that we in our minds want them to be I think that word relinquish is such a freeing word in relation to trusting God with our children Sharon, would you take a moment we just have about a minute left in this conversation would you take a moment and just pray for those who are watching those parents those moms, those dads, those grandparents that care and love so much and want the best for their children but are in many cases sometimes they're frustrated and would you just pray for them? Not sure, well, Lord, we thank you so much for this time that we can come together and pray for our children Lord, sometimes we get so discouraged as parents when we pray and we pray and we don't see the results but Father, I am so thankful when Jesus tells us that you are always at work you were always at work and you are working behind the scenes even when we can't see it so we praise you for that Lord Jesus we praise you that you were working behind the scenes Lord, I pray that we will not get discouraged when we don't see things happening quickly I also pray that parents will not get discouraged when their children struggle Lord, I think about my own life and how most of my spiritual growth and maturity came during times of struggle so Lord, we do not pray that our children will live a life of comfort and ease but we pray that in every struggle that they have that you will work and do the work that you need to do in that child to make him or her the man or woman that you want them to be we would give these children to you in Jesus name, amen. Amen, amen. The book is called Praying for Your Child from head to toe, a 30 day guide to powerful and effective scripture based prayers Sharon, James, thank you so much for being with us and sharing with us today. Thank you. Well, I would again, recommend this book to anyone and just stay with us, we're gonna take a quick break when we come back, we're gonna be sharing with you. No matter your age or circumstances God wants you to move forward. Join bestselling author and teacher Dr. David Jeremiah in a masterclass revealing how to live fearlessly. You'll discover that it's never too late to find your purpose. Dr. David Jeremiah reveals powerful ways for people of any age to live a life that's meaningful. Inside forward, you'll uncover strong Bible teaching coupled with incredible real life stories and practical biblical insight. Learn how God wants to expand your dreams, give you divine direction, equip you with tools to overcome fear and much more. Request your copy of this life changing book when you support Cornerstone Television. Call 888-665-4483 or give online at ctvn.org slash donate. Find air times for a turning point with Dr. David Jeremiah at ctvn.org. Donate and request his book forward. Thank you for your partnership with Cornerstone TV. We're glad you're joining us on Hope Today. And as you heard earlier in our show and our program that Cornerstone Television Network, we have an initiative, it's a 21 day prayer journey and it's our focus today, it's day two of it and it's praying for confident belief in God's word. And we just wanna encourage you that you can go to our website at ctvn.org slash journey that's ctvn.org slash journey that you can get your free guide so you can walk through with us every day. And today our scripture comes from Isaiah 5511 and it says this, you're probably really familiar with it and this is a good one. So is my word that goes out from my mouth. It will not return to me empty but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. Tom, this is such a powerful scripture. What are your thoughts about it? Well, I love this and I've got mine all printed out here. But I like this, praying for confident belief in God's word. Listen, everything in our modern society will array itself against the word of God and cause us to want to doubt the word of God, want to not believe the word of God. Listen, the word of God is tried and true. It's a solid foundation for you to stand on. You need to trust the word of God. So it's great to pray into this, that we remind ourselves and those around us to stand with the word of God. Cause like, I mean, we know that everything, even our kids going back to school, praise God for the wonderful teachers and the classes they have, but there will be something in their school curriculum somewhere that is just opposite of the word of God. And we have to stand and believe that God wants us to trust His word. And so we need to pray that for our children, pray that for ourselves, pray that for our community, that our communities will even stand for the word of God. You know, sometimes I know a lot of times as Christians and beliefs we talk about the word of God, but the one thing I even think in scripture that recently just been highlighted in my spirit is that God says He magnifies His word above His name, that there's such an importance on the word of God, that the word of God is true. The word of God, we can stand on it when we're walking through adversity, when we're walking through trials, and we can believe it and hold on to it and say, God, this is what your word says and we can tell God like your word says this and these are the promises that you have over my life. And Tom, one teaching actually like Bishop Clay of Petro International Ministries like recently did and it's just been sitting in my spirit. And it is like, I'm taking this up and I want to give this truth and revelation that he shared with us to you is that, you know, we talk about the armor of God, you know, the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, the belt of truth, the sword of the spirit. I just want to start with the sword of the spirit. And he was just talking about, if you look down and when you study in the Roman culture, they would take this one, it was a little dagger and they would use it to take out the darts. They would use it to take out the things that were, you know, the things that the enemy has like thrown against them. And the same is true with us is like, he was saying that you take the sword of the spirit and then you pull out those woundings, but you know what you do? You speak the word of God. And so it's like, you know, no matter what hits come your way, take that sword of the spirit, take the word of God and no matter what those woundings may be, no matter what hits may come, you take it and you just start speaking the word over your wounds and you speak and declare the promises of God. And we can, this is a perfect scripture. I say at 55, 11 to speak over yourself and trust and believe that God, he is not a man that he should line or a son, a man that he should repent. If he has said it, will he not do it? And that's what we have to hold on to that truth today. Oh, absolutely. And in fact, I heard this scripture so often in King James, it says that my word will not return to me void, okay? Or empty as it says in the NIV. What a tremendous promise for us to trust in as we pray. Again, as we were talking to Sharon James, she was talking about praying these scriptures for our children. What a tremendous way of praying is, look, we can just pray and pour out our heart and that's fine. And we could pray and pour out our list of what we want God to do. And that's fine too. That's not a wrong thing. Sometimes people speak against that but it's not really a wrong thing to pray that out. But boy, when you get a hold of the scripture and what God wants to, he reveals in the scripture what he wants and when you pray that, that will not return void. You're sending out those prayers, sending them to God. You know, I have a, people say this all the time. I have a little thing about this, Sidney. People say, sending prayers to you, you know, on Facebook, they say that. Sending prayers to you, not exactly. You're sending prayers to God and you're sending the answer. He's sending the answer to them, okay? It's not just good vibes. We're sending to someone. It's the thought God is getting involved. God is the one who's gonna take this situation that you're going through, that they're going through and transform it according to his word. You know, one practical thing that you can do, and I've done this recently, assistant to a place where I like to pray. I write down scriptures every, like I write them down and I have them hanging up. And as I'm like spending time with God, I will just literally just say his word and I'll put, insert myself into it because it just helps faith arise and it reminds me of who God is and what he has said about me. You know, you are a child of God. For those of us that are in Christ, there's things that we can stand on. His promises are true and sometimes they get tested. Sometimes it's hard. Sometimes you're like, God, where are you? I thought you said this, but I'm telling you when you hold on to the word of God, when you speak it over yourself, when you declare a thing, it shall be established. It is amazing that God has given us a mouth. Just think about this for a second. He gave us a mouth. He has a mouth that we're able to come into agreement and to trust and believe the things that he wants to do in our lives. Absolutely. You know, I'm big on a scripture about foundations and Jesus said, are you gonna build your house on the sand? Are you gonna build your house on the rock? He says, when the storms come, he didn't say if the storms come. He says, when the storms come, you know those storms are coming. You know those storms are around the corner. I don't want you to be fearful, but you know that this happens in life, that there are storms. Jesus even said so. If your house is built upon that rock of relationship with Jesus Christ, and I don't know any better way to have a relationship with the Lord than through his scripture. But you know, I just wanna make sure one thing, do you have that relationship with the Lord today? Have you made him Lord of your life? I don't mean did you go to church? Did you read the Bible? I mean, have you opened the door of your heart and said, Lord come in and be my Lord and savior, forgive me of my sins. I've sinned against you Lord, but you died for my sins to be paid. And come and be the Lord and savior of my life. If you haven't prayed that, open your door today. Open that door of your heart and say, Lord come in. You know, it's not a religious thing. It's not something that you have to do every day, but it is something you have to do to be born again and to know him as savior and Lord and to know the purpose you have, he has for you in this life. Have a great day.