Parenting can be quite a humbling journey. When our children are born and we cradle that new life we may have visions of who they will be and all that we will teach them. However, often times we do not foresee all that parenting will teach us. The learning curve is steep as we graduate from consoling a colicky baby to answering a four-year old’s endless questions, to navigating school days and friends, to pre-teen woes, to high school, to entering adulthood and beyond. Every new stage reminds us of how little we know.
When teaching our children to pray, we may be met by that same “new stage” feeling and have a desire to look back in our own lineage for guidance. It can be tempting to feel inadequate because of the challenge of teaching our children what we may not have been perfectly taught. However, beloved, good news! We have a better bloodline than merely what we have inherited. We as the body of Christ are also “…fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God…” (Eph. 2:19). And as such, just like the father told the oldest son in the parable of the prodigal son, all that is His is ours. We have God as our perfect Father, Jesus as God our advocate and perfect mediator, and the Holy Spirit as God our helper. Plus, we inherit the extended family of a lifetime having been adopted into the Spirit filled family of God.
Fear not. Be encouraged. There are no stepchildren of God. We are all adopted. We were given new blood in our veins and vitality in our souls by the power of the Holy Spirit when we received Christ. It is from Him “that every family in heaven and on earth is named” (Eph. 2:15). Whether or not you have godly examples in your family line, God is “able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us” (Eph. 3:20). He can cause a new thing to spring up and take shape in your family beginning with you.
You can leave a legacy of prayer. Don’t give up! You are not out of your league. God rewards those who earnestly seek Him. May you sense His nearness and hear His voice saying, “This is the way, walk in it…” (Is. 30:21).