More from Bill Gosling

Family life can be challenging at the best of times.  With four adult children our prayer lives are still kept busy.  When the children were much younger my wife and I could pray into a situation, but at the same time we had a significant direct influence in their lives.  We could implement environmental controls and discipline, hopefully in a prayerful manner.  As my children have progressed into adulthood that direct influence has diminished and at first I found this disconcerting.

We had to increasingly rely on prayer alone.  The amazing thing that we discovered was just how effective prayer alone can be.  This should not have surprised us since God knows our children even better than we do and can see the whole whereas we see only in part.  This was an immense relief to us, as we did not have to stress about ‘fixing’ things in their lives.

The process of praying for our adult children, often on our evening walks has drawn us closer.  We have become excited to see God working in their lives.  Life does not stand still and neither should our prayer life but whatever stage of life we are in we can have confidence that God is at work in our lives and our children’s lives.