Intentionally Appreciating Our Children: A 3-Day Parenting PlanSample

The Blessing

I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants.

Isaiah 44:3

Author Bruce Wilkinson and his son, David, were sitting quietly in Bruce’s living room. Suddenly David spoke up. “Dad, will you bless me?” Surprised, Bruce said, “David, you know I do bless you.” “No, Dad,” David said. “I want you to really bless me.” David stood up, walked to his father’s chair, and knelt in front of him.

Bruce was stunned, but also filled with a tremendous desire to answer his son’s request. He put his hands on David’s shoulders and began to pray—for David’s mind, health, interests, and skills, for his friendships and work, for his dreams, for every part of his life. Bruce didn’t stop until he was sure his son not only was blessed, but also felt blessed. Both father and son now say that moment deepened their relationship and gave David a new sense of spiritual confidence.

Some children spend their entire lives striving for the love, acceptance, and blessing of their parents. They suspect that their parents love them and are praying for them, yet they’ve never encountered a tangible example of this heartfelt affection and support.

Don’t let your children go through life without a blessing. Kneel down with them today and pray for the Lord’s abundance and mercy to be with them always.

Before you say good night . . .

• Do your children feel blessed by you?
• In what specific areas do your children need blessing?
• Should you establish a tradition of regularly blessing your kids?

Lord, You are the Fountain and Source of every blessing. May Your blessing upon our lives flow through us to the children You have given us. Help us bless them in a way that will bring confidence, peace, and joy to their hearts. Amen.

Excerpted from Night Light for Parents, used with permission.

Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a spring; his branches run over the wall. The archers bitterly attacked him, shot at him, and harassed him severely, yet his bow remained unmoved; his arms were made agile by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob (from there is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel), by the God of your father who will help you, by the Almighty who will bless you with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that crouches beneath, blessings of the breasts and of the womb. The blessings of your father are mighty beyond the blessings of my parents, up to the bounties of the everlasting hills. May they be on the head of Joseph, and on the brow of him who was set apart from his brothers. (Gen. 49:22-26, ESV)

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may . . . know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Eph. 3:14-17, 19, ESV)