July 9, 2008

  • The Blessing...

     

    The Lord bless thee and keep thee: 

    the Lord make His face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: 

    The Lord lift up His countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.

    Numbers 6:24-26

     

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    As I read these words this morning and meditated on them my mind went back

    to about  13 years ago when my children were much younger. 

     

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    At about that time I had the opportunity of reading a book called "The Blessing"

    by  Gary Smalley and John Trent and this book really spoke to my heart.

     

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    As a direct result of reading that book I started speaking a blessing over my children each night as I tucked them into bed and said goodnight.  It was a simplified version of the verse above.  "May the Lord bless you and keep you, may He be kind and gracious to you, may He look on you with favour and give you peace." 

    For many years I daily so spoke these words over them and when I  by chance forgot they would say to me, "Mommy, say what you always say to me," and then I would remember and take delight  in speaking a blessing over them again. 

    I am so thankful for the years I was able to do this for them.... Now they are 17 and 18 years old, I no longer tuck them into bed at night, but as I go to bed each night I still pray the blessing of God over them.


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    Have any of you ever prayed or spoken blessings over your loved ones?

     

    Aside from verbal blessings - how do you like to bless your family?

     

     

     

Comments (10)

  • There are many things I wish I'd done. That is one of them. I prayed for them, almost the same thing, but blessings... I am really only just learning about. I bless them now, my adult children in my prayers, and Evan here at home.

    Also, in our weekly Shabbot which we are learning to impliment, blessing each other is part of that. We each lay hands on the other's head in turn, and say a blessing. We have also taken to laying a hand on each of our animal's heads as we pass them asking the Lord to bless them and keep them from suffering - just in case the end times are just around the corner. :) And that's about the strangest thing I've admitted to in a while. LOL

  • Adorable. And, i know that book.
    Do you also have a current pic of them?

  • I absolutely love that verse. I've never read that book and I will look for it next time I am in the church library.

    What precious pictures of your children! Thank you for sharing them.

    How do I bless my family? I try to pray with them and for them on a daily basis. I try to be an encouragement to them. And I like to bless them with a clean home and good food! :)

  • I love that book, and work at practicing it and teaching the power of blessing your family, friends, coworkers - even strangers.  Thanks for reminding me about it again.  It is something we all need to keep before us.

  • That is so neat!  I have a baby picture of each of my children framed on the wall with a smaller frame in the arrangment with this prayer in it  "We dedicate these children to You, O Lord.  May You keep them always in Your loving care, and may their lives be a testimony of Your grace upon them.  Amen"

  • We pray FOR our children's individual needs and have taught them to pray before eating and when going to bed at night. We used to SAY the prayers for them (with them repeating after us), but now that they are almost 6, and 7 & 8 years old, we are encouraging THEM to speak to God in their OWN way, so they'll know how when we aren't around.

    We pray out loud for each other, but I don't think I've ever repeated the same verse or sentence to them each time as a blessing.

    This was a sweet post. Darling little children!

  • What an awesome idea to pray blessings over them. Those pictures of them are precious. What a blessing you are to them!

  • such a good exhortation here.. and something i SO needed. just recently i realized that, without really planning for it to happen this way - the kids come downstairs to tell me goodnight but daddy is the official "tucker-inner." he prays and reads and tells them stories before bed each night. in the past few wks. i've been feeling the Lord's nudging to just go up too and pray over them... to give them one more kiss... or share a word of praise from something i appreciated about them that day ~ the blessing idea is right on par with that! and something i'm going to start practicing... THANKS for sharing.

    your kids are just adorable - - and i must say, you look way too young to have teenagers!! :)

    Happy Wednesday~ amber

  • Darling kids! Yes, I went to a Smalley/Trent Conference years ago. It was a hoot, no really, it was so much fun as well as a major life changing time. As a result we purposed blessing our children and others on an habitual basis. (both verbally and with our actions...they taught how to show your delight in someone even when they came into a room.My husband and I have taught these principles over and over)  It is funny, but just last night I purposed to bless my son, who is in a difficult situation on the other side of the country. I could tell it meant something profound for him. Your kids are at a particularly important age for blessings of many kinds, prayers most especially. Thanks for this sweet post. blessing and hugs in SC. M

  • What sweet children!
    And what a wonderful post!

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