How to Reach the Hearts of Your Children

From Paul E. Miller:

It took me seventeen years to realize I couldn’t parent on my own. It was not a great spiritual insight, just a realistic observation. If I didn’t pray deliberately and reflectively for members of my family by name every morning, they’d kill one another. I was incapable of getting inside their hearts. I was desperate. But even more, I couldn’t change my self-confident heart. My prayer journal reflects both my inability to change my kids and my inability to change my self-confidence. That’s why I need grace even to pray.

God answered my prayer. As I began to pray regularly for the children, he began to work in their hearts. For example, I began to pray for more humility in my eldest son, John. (As Jill says, “The apple didn’t fall far from the tree.”) About six months later he came to me and said, “Dad, I’ve been thinking a lot about humility lately and my lack of it.” It didn’t take me long to realize I did my best parenting by prayer. I began to speak less to the kids and more to God. It was actually quite relaxing.

Paul E. Miller, A Praying Life: Connecting With God In A Distracting World, p. 59.