66 DON’T WASTE YOUR TEARS; SAVE THEM FOR A
RIVER OF INTERCESSION AND PRAYER.

“I just don’t know where I went wrong,” the young mother said. “Billy is defiant, and won’t obey me at all.” Weeping bitterly, she sank into the chair and buried her face in her hands.

My heart went out to this mother whose heart was so obviously broken. She blamed herself for the things her son did and seemed helpless to stop him.

Crying out like this mother are countless thousands of other mothers and fathers around the globe. They wonder where they went wrong or what they could have done differently. Each situation is different, though there are often similarities like …

•     Not establishing boundaries.

•     Intermittent follow through with discipline.

•     Unreasoned responses to minor infractions of the rules.

•     Rules that changed as the parents mood changed.

It’s time for this young mother and other parents like her to stop crying the day away and instead begin interceding for their children before God. So long as parents throw up their hands in surrender, crying will not help. However, crying out to God to shape and mold children avails much.

It’s not enough to just be sorry for past failures. Become proactive in your prayers—it’s never too late see God move.

The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit (James 5:16b-18).