#YouandYourGirl May Series: 9 Prayers to Pray During Times of Change

9 Prayers to Pray During Times of Change | monthly #youandyourgirlseries by Lynn Cowell

 

 But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!” Galatians 5:22-23 (NLT)

Dragging my feet and my heart, I headed to her room, finding her buried in schoolbooks. She was responsible; I hadn’t been.

Welling up with tears, I began my apology. Seems like I’ve been doing that a lot lately. This time I failed to order my daughter’s graduation announcements.

What kind of mom am I?

My girl reassures me: this is not an emergency. Smiling and tilting her head as I blubber my confession, she looks at me as if I’m from another planet. Not because I forgot, but because I’m crying. Who is this woman? I imagine her thinking.

I know she must wonder about me these days.

Lately I haven’t been recognizing me either. The normal organized, rational, on-the-task woman can’t seem to keep it all together.

Maybe the forgetting isn’t so unintentional. Could this be my heart’s way of trying to put off the inevitable?

On my desk sits the form, the one I’ve procrastinated completing, requiring me to admit her age. She’s an adult now. How did that happen? My mind wanders Will she still need me? Who am I now? What is my place?

When I began preparing for our You and Your Girl series this month, I intended to write 9 prayers to pray for your girl during times of change. That’s what this series this year is about – our girls. Then I realized, as I read the traits I wanted to pray for my daughters this month, I was the one who needs these prayers.

I’m guessing like me, you’ve either just come out of a season of change, are entering a season of change or one is just on the horizon. It might not be your youngest graduating from high school. You might be returning to school, making a move or looking for a new job. Change swirls in and around the lives of all of us. Just when we adjust, like a squirming toddler, life just won’t stay still. We finally think we’ve got control, when chaos erupts. One activity stops while two are added. And whether we like the new that has come, or we wish we could run and hide, our feelings don’t change the inevitable.

To handle this constant change well requires traits that I haven’t completely developed yet. Under pressure I have thought I’m just not patient. I can’t be kind. We want to wait until it is easier to be kind or self-controlled.

Maybe, just maybe, change is God’s way of bringing the change. He just might be setting up this opportunity for me to grow into the woman He knows I can become.

We can allow the pressure of transition to transform us. We can permit the rain and the sunshine in our lives to grow in us His fruit, the kind described in today’s key verse: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

Every day we are becoming. The question is who are we becoming? During the planting, watering and weeding of change, if we will be diligent and faithful during each season, we will see beauty instead of bitter grow in our lives. As we lean into God, asking for strength through the peace or through the pain, He will make us into the woman He’s intended for us to become.He will make us women who are becoming His definition of beautiful.

Over the next 9 days, let’s pray for God to do His work in us, while we do the work of investing in our girls through seasons of change.

Jesus, I don’t always like the change that comes in my life, but I do want to be beautiful instead of bitter. Grow in me the traits you call gorgeous and help me to embrace this season. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Here are all the posts in this series 9 Prayers to Pray During Times of Change:

Day 1 – Lord, Make Me Loving

Day 2 – Lord, Make Me Joyful

Day 3 – Lord, Make Me Peaceful

Day 4 – Lord, Make Me Patient

Day 5 – Lord, Make Me Kind

Day 6 – Lord, Make Me Good

Day 7 – Lord, Make Me Faithful

Day 8 – Lord, Make Me Gentle

Day 9 – Lord, Make Me Self-Controlled

If you enjoyed this series, I invite you to check out my latest book, Magnetic: Becoming the Girl He Wants.

Magnetic by Lynn Cowell

Magnetic encourages you to live out the nine amazing characteristics—known as the fruit of the Spirit. You will not only cultivate an inner and outer beauty, but you will also hold an irresistible appeal for godly guys. Shift your focus from a guy to the Guy and become the magnetic young woman God created you to be.

 

Follow Lynn Cowell’s board 9 Prayers in Times of Change on Pinterest.

You can read all the previous You and Your Girl series here.

Lynn

8 Comments

  1. Thank you for this timely message this morning, Lynn! My girl is playing with fire in an unhealthy relationship. She had broken it off several weeks ago and now this guy is slowly slowly creeping in again at the edges of her life. A little bit here, a little bit there. In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths. Please Lord, just enough light for the step I am on.

    1. Lynn Cowell says:

      Lord, please give Cindy the wisdom she needs as she needs us. You promise us in James 1 that you will give us wisdom if we ask for it. We are asking, Lord! We all need it with our kids! We need to know what to say, when to say it and when to say nothing at all as my friend Karen Ehman says. Amen!

  2. I’m looking forward to this serious. I have 2 girls. 13 and 8. I feel like we’re speeding ahead at full tilt!

    1. Lynn Cowell says:

      Colletta – you are! Surround yourself with others who have gone before you and are going through this with you. And most of all, keep your heart FULL of Jesus and His words every. single. day.

  3. So good! Beautifully spoken from a mom’s heart! Sometimes lately, I think I’m losing it! So glad I’m not alone. Comfort to my heart, soul and mind!!

    1. Lynn Cowell says:

      Hang on tight to Jesus, Lisa! You won’t loose it! (But like me, you might have to give up some stuff in order to keep sane!)

  4. Oh my word, Lynn, this HIT me right where I was this morning!! Thank you, once again, for hitting a home run for this mamma’s aching heart this morning! When you said God brings the change to bring the change…wow, so insightful, and powerful! And when you said I’m praying for my girl, but I need the prayers…again, Yes~! Amen, Girl!

    Thank you!! Thank you!!!
    xoxoxo

    1. Lynn Cowell says:

      So Bobbie, I am so glad! We’re in this together! We need each other whether the change is potty training our little girl or training her to go to college in the fall!

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