Father Knows Best – 5 Prayers For Your KidsSample

Even Honest Abe Messed Up – A Prayer for Pure Hearts

Abe Lincoln once said, “My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure.” News flash! We’re not perfect dads. We sin. We mess up. In fatherhood, it’s difficult to gauge our success. There isn’t a progress report that hits our desk each quarter letting us know if we’re meeting our fatherhood goals.

We can use our failures as examples to our kids. They will notice how we respond to our sin and whether true repentance is the result. This passage was written after David’s confession regarding his adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband. He confessed his sin and repented of it.

Confession is agreeing with God about our sin and it goes along with repentance, where we no longer embrace our sin.

In this passage, David longs to have a pure heart so he will not fall back into temptation. A pure heart is something only God can provide. We cannot conjure up enough cleanness to recreate a clean heart within ourselves. Only God could renew David’s spirit.

Let’s use today’s verses as a blueprint for prayer. Take the concepts of the verses and turn them into a prayer for your children. Here’s an example:

Father God, may I faithfully model repentance in my own life. When I sin, help me to admit my errors to You and turn from my sin. May my children see that when I mess up, I go to You for forgiveness.

May my kids understand that only You can give them a pure heart and renew their spirit. Only You can purify their lives and revive them. Give my children a biblical view of sin. May they seek to live for You (based on Psalm 51:10).

Let’s dig deeper together. Watch a video of two cute kids sharing their love for their Father.