1. . For 33 years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota. John Piper is founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary. Choose the one that means the most to you and substitute your child's name: Sam, you are a blessing. It’s great. Please also opt me in for Exclusive Offers from Beliefnet’s Partners, From time to time you will also receive Special Offers from our partners. In either case, a hand is placed on the child's head and the following blessing is recited, appropriate for the girl or boy. “Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them. My kids are still young, but the teen years will be here before you know it, and I like the idea of a formal type ceremony for them. 8605 Explorer Drive Colorado Springs, CO 80920-1051, 10 Ways Your Family Can Show Love to Neighbors During Coronavirus, Demonstrating Steadfast Love in Parenting, Jeremy and Audrey Roloff: Better Together. 1) On a daily basis, we can pray for our children by name during our quiet time. I am so glad I read this post before his 13th birthday! The Lord may impress upon your heart a particular way to pray for the child or children, or you may need to search the Scriptures for guidance about what to request on their behalf. Positive words build trust and confidence with our children; lies break trust. Offer those prayers to God as a sacrifice, the fruit of your lips, and give thanks to God. Deuteronomy 31:6 says, “Be strong and courageous. Let them choose where they want it drawn. You can always write out your blessing in your best handwriting or format it on the computer and put it in the mail. They invite people who have been influential in the couple’s lives (immediate and extended family, close friends, etc.) (See Psalm 37:3–5, Galatians 6:9, and Proverbs 15:23.). I cannot seem to find the right words or Scriptures to incorporate them all. In the very act of blessing, we become part of the means by which God blesses the person that we’re speaking to. But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased” (Hebrews 13:15–16). Gary Smalley (deceased) was a best-selling, award-winning author, a popular public speaker and a renowned family relationship expert. Here’s a little advertisement: I think one of the best guides is David Michael’s booklet titled “A Father’s Guide to Blessing His Children.”. Keeping Your Sex Life Alive When You Face Erectile Dysfunction, Stages of Parenting: Living with the Ebb and Flow of Relationships, THE ORGASM SERIES: You Are Not Broken if You Can’t Reach Orgasm, Let’s Make the World a Little Less Scary for Women, The Sexual Abuse Questions Podcast: Pointing to Recovery. You mentioned about a free booklet that you would send related to “the blessing service” that you gave your children. If you will be together soon, why not write out your blessing now and wait until you are together to deliver it? Here is an example that you can use to create your own ceremony for your child. At ours, when we thanked everyone at the end, my husband announced that other than getting to marry me, that blessing is by far the best thing about being engaged. But we learn to overcome that feeling as we grow in our trust in His faithfulness and promise to never leave us. We’re not talking directly to people when we pray, even though corporate prayer is good, and it’s intended that people are to hear us and say amen when we pray. My husband’s family does a big blessing whenever someone gets engaged, and it’s so much cooler than a wedding shower. Want to Know When Sheila is Speaking Near You? Learn more about Gary, his ministry and resources by visiting the Smalley Institute’s website. (See Hebrews 4:12 and Isaiah 55:8-11.). So when we say, “The Lord bless you and keep you,” we are directly speaking to another person or group of people, but we’re asking the Lord to do the blessing. . The sample blessing below is for a child named Shawn. Now, these are the kind of blessings Paul pronounces over the recipients of his letters. You can begin today by lifting up powerful blessings to pray over your children. For example, when they leave for school in the morning, before practice or rehearsal in the afternoon, at supper, before bedtime. God has given us many tools to a raise our children. And make plain the central blessings that Christ has purchased for his children: freedom from sin, everlasting life, everlasting joy, the personal presence of God — of Jesus — keeping them through all the hardships of life and suffering. By that I mean blessing them with life skills, by teaching and modelling these. Rebecca (Gregoire) Lindenbach–youth & college speaking. Except, perhaps, when your child automatically turns to you and asks if you want a blessing too? In fact, we’ve created a free five-part video series called “Recognizing Your Son’s Need for Respect” that will help you understand how showing respect, rather than shaming and badgering, will serve to motivate and guide your son. people in their life blessed them as part of a kind of growing up ceremony. It’s so neat to see. You can double-check that you have included all the elements of the blessing and that your words convey exactly what you want. Written blessings can also be sent by letter or e-mail and thus cover great distances. Article Images Copyright © 2020 Getty Images unless otherwise indicated. Too much to describe here, look for my book “Blessing  the Next Generation: Releasing God’s Best in Your Child’s Life” on Amazon, coming spring of 2017. After that she just flourished and is an amazing godly young women today. And yet we are intending for God to be the one who acts in response to our blessing. How you actually do the writing depends on what you are comfortable with. We gave our eldest daughter a blessing party at 14yrs. Whether for your own child or for a child whom God has brought into your life, you should ask the Lord to show you how he or she needs to be blessed. What is a blessing Take your first step of the blessing challenge by first writing out a formal blessing for your child and then sharing it with him or her. In my family of origin my dad’s side were religious and formal blessings were a part of days like Christmas and the New Year. Here are a couple of pointers. ), maybe first date, getting a driver’s license, first drink, ears pierced (I guess this one could be for boys, too, these days), sweet-16 birthday, registering to vote or enter the Armed Forces…. Comments above 400 words in length will be let through at the moderator's discretion. God can build a child’s faith through your spoken blessings. After all we do read about it way back in the Old Testament and it was a big deal. Both the spoken word and the written word are important in giving the blessing. Lengthy comments may be shortened to the first 400 words or else deleted. 2 Timothy 1:7 says, “For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.” In times of fear, it’s important that your child is ready to stand in power, love and a sound mind under the power of the Holy Spirit. I read a book called the Powere of a Parent’s Blessing by Craig Hill…..LOVE IT! These policies are in place to help discussion remain safe and organized! This shift in power isn’t always easy and we may overstep our boundaries to do more than we should.