Being Intentional in the Midst of Sickness

I’ve got more sick ones, so I am in need of these reminders.  If you’ve got sick ones, maybe this will help you, too.Do you have a sick one?  Me, too.  Try as hard as we may, we will still have sick children, and often much more than we would like.  In our home, sickness is a most unwelcome guest, and it has a way of disrupted nearly everything.

That being said, we use sickness as a time to be thankful for the health we do have.  We talk about how there are those who battle sickness every single day, and we remind ourselves that no matter how bad we feel, our sickness will end when the virus runs its course.  When the long days and nights come, we give thanks for medication that can help and also for warm homes, clean living conditions in which to heal, and a country where serious and deadly illnesses are much less frequent than in countries where the living conditions are less than ideal.

We also use sickness as a time to focus on God and that He hears us in our pain, in our sickness, and during the sleepless nights and the dreadfully long days.  He is there to hear, but He is also there to heal.

One of my favorite things to do when my kids are sick is to pray over them, specifically for healing.  Sometimes I look to this book, Prayer-Saturated Kids: Equipping and Empowering Children in Prayer, for direction in praying over my children for any numbers of things.  If you are looking for a great parenting resource, not on how to parent, but in how to shape your children through the most powerful weapon we have, prayer, this would be your book.  This book here,While They Were Sleeping: 12 Character Traits for Moms to Pray, would be a close second, and it is full of short and specific prayers we can pray over our children every night.  Powerful stuff.

Anyhow, just as Jesus rebuked sickness, specifically fever in Luke 4:39 in dealing with Peter’s mother-in-law, as this book,Prayer-Saturated Kids: Equipping and Empowering Children in Prayer, suggests, I command that whatever ailment my child is experiencing leaves, and then pray for healing and rest over them.  Sometimes I also pray a blessing using the words of Numbers 6:23-26 which reads:  The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.

Praying over my children in this way always makes them feel at peace. They know I love them, and they are reminded that God loves them, too, and is always there.

Sickness is never something that anyone likes having to deal with, but it can be a time to be intentional in loving our children, pointing them to God, teaching them to seek Him in everything, and in bringing you as a mom closer to Jehovah Rophi, our Healer.