This Child Desperately Needed a Praying Grandparent

Today I want to share a guest blog by my friend Alexandria. You will be blessed if you read it all the way through.

It is an understatement to say that for some people life can be so horrendously painful that you feel as though you spend all or most of your energies fighting to survive the battles that sap your strength.It is an understatement to say that for some people life can be so horrendously painful that you feel as though you spend all or most of your energies fighting to survive the battles that sap your strength.

My life has felt like that in many ways, and even as I talk about it here, it still pains me as I look back and survey the many potholes and washed out roads that represent where I have been, and what I have come through. As I reminisce, I am reminded that there could have been a better way, perhaps I could have lived a different life…if I had a grandparent praying faithfully over my soul as I walked through childhood toward the ever pulling future, wishing that Hope would somehow find me and set me free.

From the time I was young I had a deep desire to be good, to obey and to please, and so I put forth my efforts in that direction, as imperfectly as that was. Now I am not saying that I was a flawless child, but my heart wanted…longed for peace and order so badly that I was practically willing to do whatever it took to be in that space. The problem was, the house I grew up in was anything but that, and the anger that resided there overflowed the walls that held us in and broke hearts as if they were glass. This was a pattern for us kids and it left us scrambling between episodes, wondering what the next trigger would be for the blow up. Whether it was between my parents or laid out upon us kids, molding us against our wills, into people who were afraid and confused and well, broken…wounded and desperate for a place of love and safety.

But those places of safety never came and we were left to try and navigate the anger and the violence as best as we could. But without a Godly intervention, we fell apart while trying to hold ourselves together, and thus began the continuation of this pain as we grew up into adults, marring our perspectives, and keeping us from that peace that only Christ can bring into any one of our lives.

I know that my story, unfortunately, is not an isolated or rare occurrence in this world. I know that there are all kinds of horrific things that happen to many people in all walks of life. I know and understand that it can be so overwhelming as we look on, wringing our hands, desperate for God to fix what we cannot even begin to fathom happening. It’s easy for the desperation of others to become our desperation in that deep desire to spare others the pains of injustice, or any difficulties that chafe against those we hold closely in our hearts.

But there is a weapon, and there is hope, and a way to make a difference…. a big one, it’s called prayer. I ended up spending my whole life falling into one abusive situation after another, but my compass was broken and my search for that oasis from the pains of life never appeared. My quest to survive was hindered by the fact that I did not think that God could love a person like me. I could not believe that He really wanted me as His own. My life was surrounded by such deep scars and pains that made me feel so ashamed and so unworthy of love no matter who it was from…even God almighty.

Today, I am thankful to say that I have come to know the power of prayer. I have come to see how prayer has totally been the vehicle through which the power of Jesus has been called into my life, making old things new and leading me to that long awaited place of love and mercy that is so amazing and can only be experienced through knowing Jesus as my Savior. He has lifted me out of the darkness and He continues to heal me and strengthen me to glorify Him…and I know beyond a doubt that God began knocking on my door when He placed people in my life that began to pray for me. For me I so desperately needed a miracle.

I have come to know Lillian Penner along this journey, and I have been so greatly touched by her dedication to encourage grandparents to pray for their grandchildren. I am still just a mom, but I see with such great perspective how life impacting it is when we pray faithfully for each other, especially the children. There probably is not a more fervent prayer that those that are planted from a deep love in the heart for those that God has blessed you with…your grandchildren.

I want to encourage you to pray for your grandchildren, pray as though their lives depend on it. (Because like me, someday it just might.) We need to hold them up before our Heavenly Father and stand in the gap for these children so that Satan may not have a foothold in their lives that leads them into paths of destruction. If it was possible for me, a girl who longed to do what was right, but ended up falling into sin over and over again, not only from others against me, but my own sins that were clouded by pain and destruction, then it can happen to anyone. It is life changing when we go to the Lord in prayer, not only for those we pray for, but for us as we seek His power and will to come against the darkness in this life we must live through.

Jesus never promised any of us an easy life, but He did promise us His love and power through the cross. It’s time to draw on the greatest act of Love in the history of mankind, by pouring out ourselves for these precious children in prayer, calling upon the power of the cross to do its miraculous work!

Please pray for the many people who have been in these situations and didn’t have praying grandparents. There may be some in your sphere of influence.

 Guest blog by Alexandria Perse