hey what's up it's your bro Mario Escobedo welcome to the Christian bro
code podcast thank you so much for tuning in this is season number two
episode number two and I produce a new episode the first Monday of every month
and so the episode you're listening to right now season 2 episode 2 is for the
month of February of 2019 and look I'm ready to jump into the episode but let
me get this out of the way real quick you might hear my voice right now it
sounds a little bit hoarse I've been dealing with some allergies for oh boy
about two months now it's just life in San Antonio where I live that's just
that's just my lot in life so hopefully it's not too much of a distraction for
you throughout this episode like I said I'm ready to jump in what I want to talk
to you about in this episode is a prayer that you can declare over your family
every single morning no matter how busy you are now my wife and I we've been
declaring this prayer over our daughters every single morning and by that I mean
every school morning we've done it every single school morning for at least the
past six years and like I said you can do it no matter how busy you are in fact
you can declare this prayer over your kids over your family in 20 seconds or
less and you might think well that's not much of a prayer but let me tell you
this is a meaningful prayer and what's gonna make it meaningful is that you're
not just gonna declare this prayer over your kids but you're gonna explain to
them what this prayer means and I'll talk about that later in the episode but
for now I want to jump into what this prayer is all about because there are
five components a components but there are five words that make up this prayer
just five words that you would declare over your kids every single morning
these five words to have a meaningful prayer moment every morning no matter
how busy you are these are the five words I'm going to tell you the five
words and then I'm gonna I'm gonna explain the significance behind each of
these five words and what they can do for you and your family your kids in
particular the five words are wisdom peace favor strength and protection now
each of these five words I'm not just pulling them out of the air
there is Bible behind this right these are based on Scripture they're based on
the Bible now you're not gonna find this particular prayer with these five words
anywhere in the Bible I I kind of crafted this myself using these five
words that I feel are significant and that that I think can really address or
or cover any situation that might come up in any given day all right again
wisdom piece favor strength and protection and I'm gonna I'm gonna go
into what those five words mean the significance of those five words and
then I'm gonna show you just how simple it is to declare this prayer over your
kids every single morning no matter how busy you are
all right so beginning with wisdom here's what I here's what I think wisdom
is here's how I define wisdom wisdom is the ability to make good decisions and
right choices now just think about this for a minute how would your life be
different if you have the ability to make good decisions how much happier
would you be in your marriage how much of a better father would you be how much
more money would you have just just think of all the things that would be
better if you had the ability to make decisions good decisions and right
choices well the fact of the matter is that you
can actually have this ability to make good decisions and right choices and
this ability comes from God and the Bible calls it wisdom you might think of
it as maybe life's secret sauce if you will
I'll get wisdom is the ability to make good decisions and right choices now
wisdom is not the same as intelligence right because you know as well as I do
that there are many and you probably know several of them many intelligent
people who still make horrible life decisions and you see them and you're
like that you're so smart how can you do something so dumb right it's not a
matter of intelligence there's a difference intelligence education
fantastic they're good but if you lack wisdom things won't go well because it's
wisdom that helps you apply your intelligence it helps you apply your
knowledge in the correct making good decisions and right choices
what we know from the Bible is this that wisdom comes from God
proverbs two six says for the Lord gives wisdom from his mouth come knowledge and
understanding now just think about that for a second when you have wisdom you
have something that comes from God himself which means that we don't have
to rely on our own limited experience or knowledge when it comes to making
difficult decisions neither do our kids we can we can take our tough decisions
to God and ask him to guide us in making the wisest choice as it relates to that
decision in fact you probably know this but there's an entire book in the Bible
devout devoted to explaining how to acquire wisdom it's the book of Proverbs
and if I had to boil down the message of Proverbs and as it relates to wisdom if
I had to boil it down and choose just one verse in Proverbs to summarize what
it talks about as it relates to wisdom I would choose proverbs chapter 4 verse 7
because this is what it says the beginning of wisdom is this get wisdom I
mean the second half of that verse says though it cost all you have get
understanding a synonym for wisdom in this case and so when you when you read
that you you wonder what's the author saying and here's what I think the
author is saying there's nothing you will ever own that is more valuable than
wisdom so do everything within your power to get it and the rewards of
seeking wisdom they're definitely worth your time and your energy and your
effort no doubt because God's wisdom helps you make those big life-changing
decisions such as well do I take this new job should we buy a house now or
save up a little bit more for a bigger down payment and and so those big
decisions that you have to make in life God's wisdom helps you make the right
decisions in the right choices but God's wisdom is also for everyday choices
how do we get out of debt like what what steps do we take to get out of debt how
how do we cultivate a happy marriage you know on a daily basis how do we
discipline this three-year-old who is out of control how do I stay connected
with my teen see God's wisdom helps you make good decisions and right choices
when it comes to the big things in life but also when it comes to those everyday
quote-unquote little things in life and so wisdom is the first thing you're
going to pray over your family and over your kids that God would give your kids
wisdom and right about now you might say something like well wait a minute wait a
minute what I mean I'm gonna pray for wisdom for my kids isn't wisdom just for
I don't know older people for adults with with real decisions to make and to
that my answer is a resounding no no here's why just think about this have
your children ever done something that made you say you know better than that
why did you do that you know better than that now of course they know better but
remember a person can have knowledge your kids can know better and still make
that choices your kids have knowledge what they need is God's wisdom to help
them apply that knowledge to make good choices and right decisions and so
here's what I think when it comes to wisdom the younger the better I mean
your your kids my kids we need God's wisdom they need God's wisdom and they
need it now and I think that God and I believe that God wants to give your
entire family you your wife your kids this ability to make right decisions and
good choices and in fact consequences that result from poor decisions well
they don't have to be your family's legacy maybe you come from that kind of
a legacy that doesn't have to continue being the case you can ask God for
wisdom and in fact God waits for you to ask for wisdom for yourself and for your
entire family we learn from the book of James chapter 1 that God is ready to
give you wisdom he's happy to give you wisdom and all
he's waiting for is for you to ask him for wisdom for yourself and for your
entire family so the very first thing you're gonna declare over your kids is
that God would give them wisdom number two the second thing you're gonna pray
over your kids is for peace now there are peace less situations I know it's
not a real word peace less situations and we all encounter situations you your
wife your kids we all encounter situations that threaten to just I mean
just throw our world into into chaos right and that's just part of life but
wouldn't it be great to feel secure even when your family encounters a nightmare
situation or a nightmare moment I'm talking about denial I'm not talking
about mind over matter no nothing like that
what I'm talking about is God's peace the kind of peace that only God can give
in fact Jesus put it this way in John chapter 14 verse 27 peace I leave you my
peace I give you I don't give to you as the world gives
so don't let your hearts be troubled and don't be afraid you can have God's peace
and not to have not have to be fearful in peace less situations in fact no
matter how peaceless and I'm gonna use that word even though I know it's not a
real word no matter how peace less your life can be or things around you can be
your life can still be peaceful and and and here's here's the truth of the
matter that we have a hard time accepting that truth that life can be
peaceful even if things are peace less around us we have a hard time accepting
that truth and I think is because unfortunately many of us we've bought
into the lie that stress-filled living is normal I mean that's just the way
life is life is supposed to be full of stress and anxiety and and peace less
situations we've bought into the lie that stress-filled living that that's
the norm that's just the way things are supposed to be and and while society
might promote that God doesn't promote that because
peace-filled living is what God intends to be the norm for his children to the
point that God promises that his peace will protect us now in this sense God's
peace provides protection against life's frustrations Paul said it this way in
Philippians 4:7 and the peace of God which transcends all understanding now
long note this will guard another word could be protected will guard your
hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus now notice that word guard because it
describes what God's peace does for you in times of frustration God's peace
gives you a protection that you can't create for yourself that's important
God's peace guards your heart by not allowing negative emotions that can take
root in your heart drag you into a pit of despair or disillusion or depression
now God's peace guards your heart from that God's peace guards your mind by not
allowing bad thoughts or negative thoughts become bad behavior God's peace
guards our minds from that and so when you and I when we trust God with our
heart and we focus our mind and our thoughts on him then God guards us with
his peace in short God's peace it keeps you from going insane when life is going
haywire right it keeps you grounded it keeps you it puts things in perspective
and it says know God's peace guards my heart it guards my mind doesn't matter
how crazy stuff is around me God's peace guards my heart and my mind and and it's
not just just like with wisdom it's not just those devastating life-altering big
tragedies of life that that can bring peace less situations to you sometimes a
lot of times maybe most of the time it's just like
everyday frustrations that attack our hearts and our minds it's it's the
little stuff we encounter every day so maybe you get a phone call from your
child's your child's teacher right oh he didn't behave today he didn't he's not
doing his work that can steal your peace maybe there's a car repair that you just
weren't expecting the roof at your house starts leaking maybe you had a stupid
fight with your wife I mean these everyday just real-life
situations they threaten to rob us of the peace God wants us to enjoy in him
and it's not just us as adults your children well they also can encounter
peace stealing situations maybe they don't understand the new math lesson
that the teacher introduced that day maybe there's bullying taking place
maybe they had a little fight with a friend at school if you have teenagers
in high school maybe they're worrying about getting good grades or grades that
are good enough to get into the college where they want to go and never mind the
fact that they have to choose the right career at 17 or 18 years old I mean all
these frustrations they can sneak into their lives and they can steal the peace
that God wants your kids to have and when those things come up well what we
do is that we ask God for peace and we trust that God's peace will triumph over
those peace stealing situations in fact Paul says in Romans 16:20 the God of
peace will soon crush Satan under your feet and for me one of the implications
of that verse is that Satan is the author of peace less situations that can
infiltrate your life but when when we place our trust our entire trust in God
during those peace less situations neither those situations nor Satan
himself can overcome us they will be defeated by God's peace so it's yours
for the asking I mean it's there for you God wants you and your family and your
kids to have peace and his peace is not
something that that he keeps hidden from you he gives it to you and to your
family when you place your trust in him you focus your mind on him and you ask
him for peace you can be peaceful in peace less situations so every day pray
for God's peace allow his peace to guard your heart and your mind and those of
your kids every single day the third thing third thing you're gonna
pray over your kids is favor now here's here's how I define or here's how I
understand favor God's favor is what moves other people to want to help you
be successful all right and so here's here's what I'm going to tell you about
God's I'm gonna tell you about God's favor and then I'm gonna tell you how to
get God's favor all right now understand that God's favor will
move others to want to help you that that's that's how I understand God's
favor it'll move others to want to help you to
be successful but understand this God doesn't play favorites I'm not saying
that God plays favorites no God doesn't play favorites but he does bless his
children with favor there's a difference if we're talking about favor not
favorites and so when you become aware of the
power of God's favor you begin to understand that your life is not at the
mercy of fate or or or Lady Luck it wasn't at Frank Sinatra who sang luck be
a lady tonight now when you're living by God's favor you understand that you're
not at the mercy of fate you're not at the mercy of luck everything is in God's
hands your life is in the hands of an all-powerful caring God who wants the
best for you and for your kids for your family and so you might be asking well
all right is that even in the Bible yeah it definitely is in the Bible the Bible
contains numerous examples of the power of god's favours and I mean I'm gonna
I'm gonna just give you one example I'll mention two others but I'm just gonna
explain only one it's the story of Amaya now now Maya was a god-fearing man
who wanted to start a project that would benefit his people that is the Jewish
nation and glorify God now the bad news was that Nehemiah was miles away from
his people and from his homeland where he wanted to do this project of
rebuilding the walls of the city of Jerusalem now Nehemiah held a high
position in the court of the king of the country where he lived in Persia and so
Nehemiah approached the king and presented his request and wouldn't she
know it the King granted nehemiah's request to start work on his project and
not only that but the king offered to provide listen check this out
the King offered to provide all the finances that Nehemiah would need to
complete the project what's interesting is that this King didn't even serve God
at least not Nehemiah's God and it's possible that he didn't even know who
the God of Israel was so then you asked well then why would he be so generous
and willing to help Nehemiah and I think I think we find the answer to that
question in Amaya chapter 1 verse 11 because this is this is where Nehemiah
prayed to God before he went and presented his request to the king and
the very last thing that Nehemiah had told God in his prayer was this give
your servant success today by granting him favor in the presence of this man
now understand that the king was under no obligation to Nehemiah I mean he's
the king and maia nehemiah has nobody right so the king is
under no obligation to Nehemiah but God's favor rested on a amaya
and therefore the King granted Nehemiah his request and so when I look at the
prayer name I offer to God and then and then the way that the king responded for
me I kind of put two and two together and I see that it was God's favor that
moved the king to help Nehemiah now there are like I mentioned other
instances in the Bible that show God's favor in action I'm not going to go into
detail with those but for example the story of Daniel now that to me is an
example of God's favor the story of Esther that's another example of God's
favor and action and and okay okay you say okay
that's the Bible but does that still work for today and I would say yes I
would say yes then let me give you an example one of my church members let's
just call him John alright it's not his real name but let's just call him John
he told me this was a couple years ago he told me that he was being offered a
promotion at work and and this was gonna be you know
increased pay additional benefits and this was a good career move for him
definitely now there was one little problem is that and the problem was that
this position was gonna require that John work all day on Sunday now John
wanted the job but not if it meant missing church with his family so he
turned down the promotion I mean just flat-out turned down the promotion now
his supervisor tried to convince him to take the position but John just said no
I mean no and in fact he told me I told my supervisor that I would accept the
promotion but under no circumstances would I miss Church just to work and
it's funny because his supervisor he says okay but the position requires
working all day Sunday and nothing's gonna change that
so then John just said okay well thank you very much but I'd rather not take
the promotion well a few days later John's supervisor came back to John and
told him that he could have the promotion on his own terms that means
that John received the promotion increase in salary additional benefits
and did not have to miss church on Sundays now I look at that and I ask
well what can explain the supervisors change of heart why why would he make an
exception to the company's policy for this one employee and and as I look at
this situation for me the answer is God's favor and you say okay I like it I
like it where do I sign up like like where do I sign up for this stuff well
God's favor now before you like pound on the door of your supervisors office and
tell them that you have God's favor so I want to raise and
I want a better work schedule let me explain to you how this favor stuff
works just in practical terms and what I want you to notice is that in each of
the examples above the motives were not selfish
Nehemiah and you can go read about Daniel and Esther and then you know the
story I told you about John my church member all of them they honored God
God's favor was a response to their unselfish motives and their unselfish
petitions see God's favor I'm I'm I'm not preaching a a prosperity gospel here
a health and wealth name it and claim it type of thing that know that that stuff
is hogwash because God's favor it's not for
granting your every wish in your every want and your every desire God's favor
is not like this genie in a bottle right that God gives you the fact is that God
gives you his favor to help you advance toward the purpose that he designed for
you in his kingdom and in advancing his kingdom that that's in my mind that's
the point of God's favor and go back and look at the Bible at these stories
Nehemiah Daniel Esther and others like them and you'll see that when God's
favor is active is because people put their own agendas their own desires
aside and they say it's about God his will in his kingdom above everything
else and they advance because of God's favor and so when God rests his favor on
you the result is that God removes obstacles that might keep you from
advancing because there are gonna be times in life and on this on this
spiritual journey that we're all on that we will need the help of others to move
in to advance towards God's purpose for you know what he has for us and there
are gonna be lots of people who are gonna be happy to help us out no doubt
but there will be others who are gonna be reluctant and some of them might even
be hostile when it comes to helping you out when that happens don't worry God's
favor on your life has a way of making that reluctance and
hostility just well melt away and so how do you obtain God's favor well to obtain
God's favor you need to put yourself in the way in the path on the road of God's
favor and the way you do that is by following God's command I'm seeking to
live according to his plan for your life it's God's favor as a result of living
obediently and submissively to God in a way that honors God and everything and
so just just take a moment maybe even want to pause the episode for just a
moment think about how things could be different with God's favor resting on
you and on your family what about your kids at school how would things be
different if every morning you prayed God's favor on them and you explained to
them God's favours for helping you to advance but we live obediently and
submissively to God to his will and for his kingdom
every morning commit yourself and your family to the purpose God designed for
each one of you and as you do that I think you can be pretty sure that God is
gonna make his favor rest on each and every single one of you and you'll be
amazed I think I've seen this happen in our life you'll be amazed at how many
people will feel the urge to help you and your family advance and succeed and
for me that's God's favor in action so that's the third thing you're gonna pray
over your kids every single morning God's favor so so far we've covered
wisdom peace and favor the fourth thing that you're gonna pray over your family
every single morning is strength now let me ask you this are there some mornings
when you have to drag yourself out of bed because you're so tired have you
ever been at work and all you can think about is when you'll get to go to sleep
later that night have you ever taken like a quick nap at a stoplight I have
how about this one have a have you ever been playing hide-and-seek with your
kids and you've fallen asleep while hiding all right now I don't know if
that's just me but yeah I've done that maybe you have too and if you've
answered yes to any of the questions that I just mentioned mm you could
probably use some of God's strength now whatever whatever you need whatever
whatever you need strength to endure it could be a life crisis or maybe just
trying to make it to the end of the day you and your family can rely on God's
strength God can give you of his strength when you've completely run out
of your own and that's that's important to know and you ask well wait a minute
can God actually give me strength because I think you know that there's no
magic pill to give you strength when you need it and and let's come on let's face
it those energy drinks that can't be the best option but what we do know is that
God has an unending supply of strength and and he can give you strength when
you need it the most and maybe you've never thought of asking God for strength
because you don't think like that's the kind of thing God does but the Bible
says differently the Bible says something different for example Isaiah
chapter 40 in that chapter there are several of the powerful attributes of
God okay there's a long list powerful attributes
of God and the last thing that the author mentions is that God never gets
tired that's in verse 28 now when it comes to us though it's pretty exciting
here is that God he gives strength to those who serve Him I hope you've
probably heard maybe even memorize this verse Isaiah 40 29 through 31 he gives
strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak even youths grow tired
and weary and young men stumble and fall but those who hope or wait in the Lord
will renew their strength they will soar on wings like eagles they will run and
not grow weary they will walk and will not faint and the way I look at
it is is like this asking God for strength I'm just talking about physical
human strength asking God for strength is a lot like asking God for healing
when you're sick because either way you're asking God to make your body
perform in a way in which it's not currently able to perform right that's
pretty much addressed and got to do so if you have faith enough to believe that
God can heal you when your body is sick then you should have faith to believe
that God can give you strength when you're tired after all he designed he
created your body and I think he's more than able to give you strength when the
busyness of life just wears you down when you hear that
look you're not off the hook right if you here's what I want you to understand
I want you understand that relying on God's strength it's not an excuse to
abuse your own body right because no matter how strong your faith or how
sincere your prayers are as I as I look at it God isn't obligated to give you
strength if you're always like just eating junk you never exercise and you
don't get the right amount of rest I happen to believe that God doesn't have
to respond to your petition or to your prayer to give you strength for the work
day if the night before you stayed up later than you should have because you
were watching TV and just channel surfing or web surfing or on social
media or whatever now there's nothing wrong with those things right I do those
things but the problem is when you allow them to absorb your time and just drain
your strength because these activities they have the potential to detour you
from fulfilling your responsibilities and even from living God's purpose for
your life and I believe that if you have a consistent habit of abusing your body
wasting your time and that's why you always feel tired then I think God is
under no obligation whatsoever to respond to your prayer for strength now
on the other hand God grants you strength when you strive to fulfill his
purpose for your life and when you go about the business
of advancing his kingdom and I'll tell you that there's nothing better than
pursuing the purpose filled life God designed for you
it is it's been my experience it is the best thing to be involved in advancing
God's kingdom on earth but I'll tell you this from personal experience it can be
exhausting and you're going to need God's strength to achieve the purposes
he has for you and still be able to fulfill all of life's obligations all of
home obligations all the family obligations all of your job obligations
God he can give you that strength and so ask for strength
maybe you feel I mean I'm drained like I've got nothing left in the tank that's
it I left it all on the field that's it well I mean you'd love to be able to do
more right but you just don't you don't have the strength to do it you're
running on empty and it could be that your entire family feels this way
because being tired it's not something that just we as parents or as dad's
Christian Bros who our dads we're not the only ones who have to endure feeling
tired just think about all the activities and all the school
requirements that your kids have to fulfill and when you think about that
then you think wow man they also run the risk of always feeling tired and so if
tired is a word that describes your family or it's just I mean it's just
always coming up in your family ask God for strength and in fact from this day
forward make it a point as part of this prayer make it a point every day to ask
God for strength for you and your family and just rest on the words of the
prophet Isaiah he gives strength to the weary all right
so that's that's number four quick recap wisdom peace favor strength and the
fifth thing fifth and final thing that you're gonna pray over your kids over
your family every single morning is protection now I get it I mean I know
because I'm like you I'm we're probably a lot alike
as burrows as christian bros we want to protect our wives and our kids and we
should I mean that we should have that desire right but at some point you're
gonna have to recognize and accept that you can't be with your family at every
place and at every second and even if you somehow manage to be with them all
the time there's still some things that I mean you just can't protect them from
those things you can be right there with them
but there can be some things that even if you're with them you you can't
protect them from them and so here's the scary truth that there are times when
you can't be with your family to protect them and there are things that you
cannot protect your family from no matter how much you try so then what do
you do well I see it you have some options number one never let your family
out of the house that's an option number two you can say at forget it who cares
throw caution to the wind just accept that dangers are just part of life and
let your kids run wild and do whatever they want and c'est la vie whatever is
gonna happen is gonna happen okay number three third option you can worry worry
and worry and just become a person who worries about your family safety all the
time now I hope you see that I mean none of these options is even worth
considering I mean it's absurd but there's one final option and that
final option is to trust God to protect your family for you because here's what
you need to know about God's protection God can protect your family in ways and
at times that you can't God is an impenetrable shield all right
Psalm Psalm chapter 3 or the third Psalm it gives us a glimpse into how David
thought about or viewed God's protection now in verses 1 & 2 we discover that
there were just a whole bunch of people who wanted to see David ruined I mean
they just hated his guts and and they even started
mocking David to the point that they were saying basically this God will not
deliver him and what they're telling David was this David you're just not
important enough for God to protect you or forgot to help you David knew
different and even though David's enemies told him that God was not
interested in him enough to protect him David said
something very important in verse three Psalm 3 verse 3 he said but you Lord are
a shield around me David knew that God protected him
you Lord are a shield around me now I want you to notice what David said about
God's protection in verse 3 you Lord are a shield around me and don't read over
that too quickly if you've been in church you probably read that verse or
something like it tons of times right and I want you to not just to notice
what David said but also what he didn't say pay attention to that because David
didn't say that God places a shield around him he didn't say that God gives
him a shield David said God you the invincible undefeated undisputed
champion of the universe you you are a shield around me God didn't give David a
shield to protect himself God didn't place a shield around David either God
Himself was the shield that surrounded David I think about this just pause and
think about this did God love David any more than he loves you or your family no
do you think God was willing to protect David back then but all of a sudden he's
not willing to protect you and your family right now
again no God doesn't want to give you a shield so you can be your family's
protector no he's not interested in doing that he doesn't even want he
doesn't even want to place a shield of protection in front of your family but
God Himself can be your family's shield God himself can be your family shield
and and notice look it's not wrong to admit or even
think that it's a big scary world out there it is but unless you plan on
locking your family up for the rest of their lives well they're gonna have to
go out there sometime and you can't be with them all the time you can't protect
them from every danger and from every harm that might come their way but you
can't ask God to be with them when you can't be with them and to protect them
in ways that you can't protect them and just think about this just as well
as you might be able to protect your kids God can protect them much better
and sure that the dangers and threats of this world are real but God's protection
is just as real and and one other thing this is gonna hurt a little bit but
we're bros I'm not doing this just to be a jerk I mean it's gonna hurt a little
bit here goes and it's applies to me too you're not the most qualified candidate
to protect your family you're not you are not the most qualified candidate to
protect your family God is and until you accept that truth it's gonna happen is
that you're gonna worry yourself to death thinking about how to protect your
family so the remedy for that is develop trust in God's protection for your
family acknowledge that God is a far better protector than you could ever be
step aside allow him to be your family's shield because remember God can protect
your family in ways and at times that you just can't alright so I was a fifth
and final element or word of this prayer I'm gonna repeat them again wisdom peace
favor strength and protection now here's here's how I do it in my family because
I've told you that you could do this in 15 or 20 seconds or less and still make
it meaningful the way to make it meaningful is to set apart some time
maybe on a Saturday night maybe on a Sunday night set apart some time with
your family and explain to them these five words mean don't just wake up
one day on a Monday or whatever after you hear this episode and just start
praying these things over them okay I mean that that's not that you can't do
that you can but it's going to be much more significant for you and for your
family if your family at least has a little bit of an idea of what these five
words mean what the significance of these five words means you know what
what do they mean so sit your family down and talk to them about these five
words and talking about what they mean what they can mean for them for your
family what what God can do and what who God can be in your family and in their
life take some time to explain these five words to them now you're gonna have
to calibrate because depending on the age of your children or your childhood
or your kids you know five minutes may be all you get leave your kids are a
little bit older you might be able to squeeze out ten minutes I don't know you
know where your kids are you know what you can get out of them but calibrate
these five words and their meanings so that you can explain it to them in a way
that they'll understand and as they grow you can expand on your explanation of
these five words we're at a season like I mentioned earlier we're at a season
where we have two teenagers so we can we can have you know a bit more of in-depth
conversation with them about these and other things but it's going to take on a
lot more significance for you and for your family if you take some time to
explain these five words before you started reciting this prayer or
declaring this prayer over them because if you're just declaring this pray over
them it's just five words it doesn't mean much but if you've taken time to
explain it to them then of course they're not going to get 100% of your
explanation I can retain it all but they're gonna have something some sort
of a context some sort of a background of what these five words mean and
they'll have a bit more significance for them so after you've done that now for
me I would suggest that that be your next step after you've done that then
every morning just declare these five words over your family as a prayer and
I'll tell you how I do it now I've expanded this a little bit since I first
started it I still just use these five words but basically here's how my prayer
for my daughter's go every single morning just about some
variations but basically this is how it is I tell them you're blessed you're
blessed by God God is with you everywhere you go and in everything you
do God has made you the head and not the tail he's placed you on top never to be
on the bottom and so today may God give you his wisdom his peace his favor his
strength and his protection and that's my prayer over my daughters over my wife
at times as well that's that's the extent of the prayer 20 seconds or less
but the benefit again of explaining that prayer to them ahead of time is that
they know what those five words mean and they have more significance for them now
that's that's the end that that's that's the prayer that's it
but what I've done is that I created some bonus content over on the Christian
bro-code YouTube channel leave a link in the description and the reason I did
this as a video is because I put together some hand gestures that will
help you remember these five words in the order in order and that's that the
order is particularly important but for the sake of remembering them and for the
sake of your kids remembering them the order can be important it just it just
helps but I've developed sort of these these hand gestures that will help you
and your kids really doesn't matter how old they are they can be young these
hand gestures will help you and your kids remember each of these five words
that make up this prayer I'm gonna tell you I preached this prayer at the church
where I pastor now I passed her a Spanish congregation but were part of a
larger church I've reached us both to my Spanish congregation and to the English
congregation and and I preached this like several years ago we're in 2019
right now I preached this like years ago and I still have people as recently as
three weeks ago as of the time of this recording who come up to me and tell me
we've been praying this every single morning since you preached it and then
they show me the hand gestures or they ask their kids
and their kids know the prayer because of the hand gestures so this stuff works
I mean that this this will work and and it's helpful I have people who have
written to me on Facebook telling me hey we're still doing the prayer and my kids
know the hand gestures and all this stuff it's been very helpful very
powerful for our family so you know and I'm not Tooting my own horn if you know
me out you know I'm not like that but I'm just I'm just telling you that this
prayer is meaningful it's short its brief but it's meaningful and
significant you can share this with your family teach them what it means and then
with these gestures that I've that I've put together it will help you remember
the words and it will help reinforce it for your kids and they'll remember them
as well to the point that they themselves will be able to lead the
prayer that's how simple it is and that's how effective these hand gestures
are so there's a link in the description of the podcast episode and it'll take
you over to the you to the christian braille code youtube channel where you
can you can see that video of the hand gestures now some of you are watching
this on youtube because i'm also recording this as a video there will
also be a link in the description of this video that you're watching right
now that will take you over to that same video where you can see the hand
gestures so check that out I'd love to hear uh what a different I mean maybe
this prayer helped you out maybe you have some prayer that you share that you
declare over your family man I'd love I would love to hear the prayers that you
declare over your family everyday and if you're not doing so already I strongly
recommend whether it's this prayer that I just taught you or something else I
strongly recommend that you just develop the habit of praying for your kids
praying for your family every single morning before you head out the door
it's a powerful moment that you can have with your family all right bro that's it
for this episode I'll remind you that there is a brand new episode the first
Monday of every month additionally from time to time I don't have a set
publishing schedule but from time to time I put some teachings up on the
Christian bro-code youtube channel believe it or not for me it's easier
just from a preparation and production standpoint it's
it's easier for me to do video than it is to do the podcast so I can put more
stuff up more frequently on the YouTube channel go check that out there's some
great teachings over there and and you can subscribe to that channel as well as
subscribing to the podcast so that you never miss out on another episode or
another teaching alright that's it for now bro hey I hope this has been helpful
and beneficial to you god bless you and may God give you wisdom peace favor
strength and protection god bless
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