Praying Circles around Your Children Author: Visit Amazon's Mark Batterson Page | Language: English | ISBN:
0310325501 | Format: PDF
Praying Circles around Your Children Description
About the Author
Mark Batterson serves as lead pastor of National Community Church in Washington, DC. He is the New York Times bestselling author of The Circle Maker, as well as In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day, Wild Goose Chase, Primal, and Soulprint. Parker Batterson is a high school student at St. John's College High School in Washington, DC. The Circle Maker: Student Edition is their first father-son book. Mark is married to Lora, and Parker has two younger siblings, Summer and Josiah. The Batterson family lives on Capitol Hill with their dog, Mickey. SPANISH BIO: Mark Batterson, autor de El hacedor de circulos y Con un leon en medio de un foso, es pastor principal de National Community Church, en Washington, D.C., cuya labor esta enfocada en alcanzar a las nuevas generaciones. Tiene dos maestrias obtenidas en la Escuela de Divinidades Evangelica Trinity, en Chicago. Reside con su esposa Lora y sus tres hijos en Capitol Hill, Washington, D. C.
- Paperback: 112 pages
- Publisher: Zondervan (July 28, 2012)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0310325501
- ISBN-13: 978-0310325505
- Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 3.9 x 0.4 inches
- Shipping Weight: 2.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
I appreciate the concept of this book, that parents need to intentionally enter into a life of prayer for their children, to cover their lives with that prayer and "circle" them. So, to that extent, this is a good book to remind us as that.
However, the presentation of the concept, while peppered with "You need to make sure you're praying God's will, not your will" admonitions, still came across strongly as "If you pray for it, it will happen". The stories and examples told came across as a matter of all that needed to happen for one daughter to gain self-confidence, for a son to have a miraculous healing, for the children to have good morals at school and at home, is simply for the parents to pray fervently, frequently, and earnestly.
But what I saw in all the stories was a different dynamic. While the book presented prayer as some way of making God do the things that needed to be done, instead what I heard were stories of parents who actually spent time discipling their children with prayer, reading scripture with them, modeling a life centered around God and God's purposes, and simply parents actually being parents and spending quality time discipling their children. Prayer is part of that, but not as some formulaic means to a miraculous end, but as a connection between the parents and God which leads to a changed life on the part of the parents. That changed life ends up positively influencing the children. So, yes, the prayer was answered... but not through a "magical" influence, but because God made the parents the instruments of the answer.
Don't get me wrong, I know prayer does miraculous things. I have a story in mind right now of a two-year-old little girl with a serious head injury who has made an amazing recovery.
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