A Post from My Daughter:

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A while back, before I started mentoring my girls, my dad and I were talking about the changes he sees in the guys he mentors. One of the things that came up was the topic of prayer. He shared about how as he spends more and more time with the guys, and they dig deeper and grow stronger in their faith, their prayers change. I was intrigued by this, so I asked him what he meant. My dad began explaining that when he initially starts meeting with a couple guys, their prayers are more self-focused, but as time goes on, their prayers became more others focused, as well as more glorifying to God.
I thought this was fascinating. I didn’t quite understand how this could happen, or even what these prayers sounded like. To me, prayer was a quick prayer throughout the day, and prayers before meals. I guess you could say, I didn’t fully understand the power of prayer, and why it was so critical – although I was told thousands of times at church. I didn’t understand how someone could sit somewhere for a lengthy period of time and not get distracted while talking to God.
The transformation I see in myself, but also in my girls, has been phenomenal!
I’ll start with my girls. Sometimes I listen to them pray, and forget that they are only 14. The sincerity of their words, and their desire to talk to God, is so inspiring, but also encouraging to know that there are youth who have a passion to pursue a relationship with their Heavenly Father. There have been nights, where after we finish our study, one of them pipes up and says that they want to pray that night. How can I say no to that? The Holy Spirit has done some incredible things in their hearts over the past few months, and only God can be given the glory. “Now all glory to God, who is able, through His mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20).
I’ve recently just finished the book Discipleship Essentials with my mentor. My dad has been using this book for about a decade now, so it’s been fun to go through it myself and see why he speaks so highly of it. Between this, and the studies I have done with my girls, I understand how the week in and week out work is essential to your faith, and how much it actually changes you. These things have had a major impact on my prayer life. I see how important prayer is, and the power it has. My prayers have gone from “I pray for a great day, and thank you for this food” to an earnest, heartfelt prayer. I pray daily for my girls, that their eyes will stay continually focused on the Creator of this universe. I pray that they will understand, as much as a person can, the depth of Christ’s love. I pray that their heart’s cry will to be made in the likeness of Jesus.
For 2014, I have made Ephesians 3:14-21 my prayer. The subtitle is “Paul’s Prayer for Spiritual Growth”. I have altered it to “Madison’s Prayer for Spiritual Growth”, and more recently, to “Eden, Jessie, and Hannah’s Prayer for Spiritual Growth”.

It says:
“When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make His home in your hearts as you trust in Him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. Now all glory to God, who is able, through His mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Glory to Him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen.”

Another Guest Post from my Daughter – Enjoy

It’s inevitable – whether you are the mentor or mentee, you are going to grow in ways you never knew would happen, especially in such a short amount of time. I’ve only been meeting with my girls for about 6 months now, and looking back on when we started, I’ve noticed growth in them, in me, and in us as a quad.

The biggest way I’ve been stretched, and still being challenged, is not keeping my faith to myself. I’m the type of person that has my own world in my mind and will gladly live in it myself. But in order for the girls to grow, I have to share with them everything that has been shared with me. Verbalizing ideas does not come naturally for me. I need time to process ideas and questions before coming up with the best answer, but when sharing your faith with anyone, you can’t sit there for five minutes and keep them waiting. (This blog is great for that, since I actually have time to think about what I want to say!) But through learning and practice, slowly but surely, I see my ideas flow out more quickly. I can only thank the Holy Spirit who is at work in me!

The girls are also fantastic motivation to keep learning new things, and to dig deep into the Word to understand how God wants us to live. It’s fascinating how every week, when I learn something new, it comes up in our conversation and I get the opportunity to verbalize those thoughts. Coincidence? I don’t think so! There are also those weeks where they challenge me in an area that I don’t know much about. One week we got talking about the views on homosexuality. I internally know my views and a general idea of what the Bible says, but it forced to me to go home and research the exact verses in the Bible. And then that conversation “coincidentally” came up in another conversation that same week.

As much as mentoring these girls is only a weekly thing, it is so much more of a daily thing. It all connects. Every Thursday morning, I get together with some girlfriends to do some cardio kickboxing (fantastic workout by the way!) and then do devotions together. Recently we read 2 Thessalonians, and 2:16-17 stuck out for me.

“ May our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who loved us and by His GRACE gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.”

Only by His GRACE does He encourage and strengthen us, which then allows us to encourage and strengthen others.

I’ll end like Paul always ends his letters, “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.”