Partnering with God in Your Parenting

In our upcoming book, God Shots, we tell the story of giving up our dream house, which sat on the river in beautiful Idaho. This house meant the world to Orpha and me, so what would make us give it up?

This story starts on a regular Wednesday night in a prayer meeting at church.

Once a month, our home church, an hour and a half south, near Boise, sets aside a Wednesday night to offer prayers of healing. On the night of one of those meetings, I was overcome with so many emotions, bouncing from absolute hope in Christ to despair over so much loss from my accident.  

For others who have long-term mental, physical, or emotional struggles, you know the honest struggle of faith when you are waiting for healing. So, it was for me that night. I was just plain tired of going and asking for help.

It started as a really hard night. I’ll Orpha take over this post for a bit.

[By Orpha]

I watched Dave praying, and my good friend Jacki leaned over and asked, “Why did Dave not go up for prayer?” I told her that he was tired of going up again and again for prayer. He just wanted to sit and pray in his seat. Jacki went over, placed her hands on Dave, and started praying.

Our son, David, was with us in the healing service. David looked up at me and asked, “Mom, what’s going on?”

I explained to my twelve-year-old son about healing prayer. He was listening to me and watching people at the altar engaged in intense prayer and said, “This is kinda awkward.”          

David scrunched down in his seat, pulled his ball cap over his eyes, and quietly let crocodile tears run down his cheeks. He asked to go to the restroom, and after a few minutes, he came back into the room and put his head on his dad’s shoulder.

David was not able to hold it together. He sat there crying on his dad’s shoulder. But he was also praying.

The prayer service lasted for a long time that night. I’m sure that Jacki prayed for at least forty minutes with Dave. We sat there; me, Jacki, David, and Dave, after the prayer time, waiting for the service to finish. David still had his eyes cast down to the floor and his ball cap pulled down low. I felt for him and wondered what was going on in his mind.

After the service, Dave drove home in his truck, and I drove home with David in my car. When he got into the car, he was a little bit hysterical, with laughter and crying coming from his mouth at the same time. 

“Oh, gosh, David! Are you okay?”

“Something weird happened, mom. I was praying over dad, and you know, I had my eyes closed. And there’s a vision of a puzzle.”

I thought, hmm, okay . . .

“So, these puzzle pieces were dropping down. The puzzle pieces were you, and me, and Paige, and the animals, you know, the animals at our house. There was a missing piece to the puzzle, and it didn’t drop for a while. A long minute or so later, it dropped in, and it was Dad.”

Then David shared what was eating at him in church. “I realized that I haven’t been including God in the puzzle of our life because I’m scared Dad’s going to die. I’m scared of the person he’s become. And it’s so different now, you know, after the accident. I haven’t been letting Dad in, and I need to love him as much as I love you and Paige.”

David was crying, and I was, too. I was trying to drive, and suddenly, he started laughing. He began a weird, hysterical laugh, and I asked, “Why are you laughing?”

“Well, I think that God has called me to be a pastor.”

We spent the next few months encouraging Little David in his calling to be a pastor, but he had it in his mind to be a pastor right then! He was only twelve, and that seemed a little early for us to start letting people know about his passion for becoming a pastor. 

During that time of waiting, our pastor agreed to take David to a men’s retreat. Dave had a trip scheduled and couldn’t go, but Pastor Allen wanted David to attend.

He told me (Orpha), “You know, I really think he has an anointing on him. I saw him at the youth retreat, and after he prayed by himself for forty-five minutes, he went around praying with other students.”

Well, who doesn’t want their kid to spend extra time with the pastor, especially when that kid feels called to the same work? So David went along with another twelve-year-old and had a great time with the guys. 

The weekend drew to a close with prayer time, and David asked Pastor Allen and Pastor Anthony if he could say a few words. David got up and said a word over all the men of the church.  

He told the men, “You are worried about being a good dad. If you are teaching your children to love their heavenly father, then you’re doing a good job.” His words moved all the men, and they were bawling.

David said he didn’t remember what he said. Pastor Allen told us that is one way you know you are working with anointing and not just a feeling. 

[By Dave] 

And that’s the story of why we are selling our God Shots dream home. We are moving from our little town to the Boise area so that David and Paige can be in a church setting with more kids their age. We are seeing how important it is to feed their faith, to be part of giving them a God Shot by giving up our home.

Orpha and I didn’t necessarily want to move to Boise, but we know it is best for David to have a solid foundation to become a pastor.

Every child follows God in a unique way, just like every family creates its own unique story. We didn’t just wake up one day ready to sell our home, nor did Paige just happen to sense God’s timing for our family to move to Idaho. The Lord gives parents God Shots to nudge them closer to their child’s unique heart. When we take time to show our kids who the Lord is and show our hearts for the special things that happen, we partner with God to give our children God Shots.

We are doing things differently than our parents did for us, and I want to share a few of our insights that work for our family. I want to share two verses of Scripture that are so meaningful when it comes to parenting.

“Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old, they will not turn from it.” (Proverbs 22:6, NIV)

“Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.” (Ephesians 6:4, NIV)

When you follow God’s leading in every area of your life—including your parenting—you will be shocked at the ways you will see God move!