Pray and Invest Like Crazy

We have a ritual in our house. At about 8:00 or 8:30 p.m., we begin a nightly ritual. It involves teeth brushing, showering, pajama donning, and general bedtime preparation, which always ends with a chat and a prayer.

For all of the kids, this has been a part of our nightly ritual. Each child, in turn, gets a few minutes with Mom or Dad or both. Each child is prayed with and over and each child is asked questions and given the chance to ask questions in a no-holds-barred fashion.

I love nighttime. I love the fact that my little girl squeezes me so tightly that it hurts. I love the chance to talk with the boys. Sometimes our chats are serious, sometimes they are silly, but they almost always are. Even when I’m gone, I try to call home around this time—whether it means sneaking away from supper on the West Coast to have my bedtime prayer and chat with these three special people or sending a good-night Facebook message to my oldest when I’m out of the country and having him pass it along to the other two.

If I had six words to share with any pastor who is also a parent, they would be these: pray, pray, pray, and invest, invest, invest. Don’t just pray at bedtime or at mealtimes. Let them see and hear you praying about decisions. In this way you can model consistent dependence on God for your kids. Don’t just chat with them when they lie down at night, but at every opportunity talk with them, teach them, and impress upon them the importance of loving God (see Deut. 6:4-9).