He screamed and clutched me as if monsters were trying to drag him into the pit of hell. Maybe that’s how he felt. The first day of kindergarten can be rather rough on a child, but I wasn’t expecting the teachers to have to PEEL my son off me. I had prayed a blessing over my child for his first day and this wasn’t even on my radar.
I walked into the parent meeting, late, brushing tears off my cheeks.
This parenting gig is hard on the soul.
I find it extra hard to help my eldest with his emotional struggles. He’s a sensitive and creative fellow with an anxious streak a mile long.
I had always hoped that his separation anxiety was more of a trick to induce mommy-guilt than a real, true-blue anxiety, but it turns out I was wrong.
The anxiety was real, and it bled into his entire kindergarten year.
Dropping him off at school was a nightmare, and he cried every.single.morning. His teacher reported that he refused to participate in gym class and he didn’t seem to be making many friends. I also had a 3 year old and a newborn at the time, and it was hard on all of us.
In my work as a Children’s Ministry Director, I had taught a class on blessing your child for the past several years, and in April, the class rolled around again. This year, when I printed off the blessing posters, I brought some home with me and let him choose one that spoke to him the most.
Here’s what he picked:
Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:6-7 (NLT)
Oh my heart. So I started praying this verse over him nightly, rather than the basic blessing I’d been using since birth.
In June, it occurred to me that he wasn’t freaking out about attending school anymore. No more tears, no more gym class freak-outs. And as I thought and prayed about it, I realized that he had started changing in April…when I started praying this blessing over him.
Have you ever intentionally prayed blessings over your child?
It’s such a simple thing, but it has enormous spiritual implications.
