Praying for Boys with Brooke McGlothlin

Main-headshot-2-600-217x300Today my friend Brooke McGlothlin releases her new book Praying for Boys. Brooke is Co-founder of Raising Boys Media, where moms and dads come to discover delight in the chaos of raising boys. You can find her writing about fighting for the hearts of her sons at the MOB Society blog, or living a life in pursuit of Jesus at her personal blog www.brookemcglothlin.com. A normal day finds Brooke homeschooling her two boys, wrangling two large Labs, Toby and Siri, writing to bring hope to the messes of life (in the midst of her own messy life), and falling more and more in love with the man she’s had a crush on since the third grade (who just happens to be her husband).

Praying-for-Boys1-196x300Below is a short Q & A with Brooke about her fabulous book. I got a sneak peek at the manuscript and even the honor of endorsing the book! Here is what I had to say, “While our sons grow tall, wearing out the knees on their jeans from tumble and play, we mothers too find our fabric worn thin from kneeling in prayer for our soon-to-be men. Brooke’s practical book, full of vulnerable sharing and deeply rooted in God’s word, will become a useful tool as you seek to make prayer a priority and model for your boys just how to run hard after Jesus.”

Be sure to leave a comment on today’s post telling us about any boys you pray for. They can be sons, nephews or the rambunctious boys you teach in a class at school. One person will be chosen at random to receive a copy of Praying for Boys.

Brooke, what do you feel is the greatest obstacle moms must overcome in order to be women who make prayer for their boys a priority?

We give priority to the things we find most in important in life. For example, I’m pretty partial to eating. I get sick and grumpy very fast if I don’t eat when I’m hungry, so because of that, I tend to place a high priority on meal time. I make time for it. Some of my friends are dedicated to exercising, so they find time for it and let others things on their to-do list slide to a lesser priority status. So it is with prayer. When we know how powerful a praying life can be—not just because it allows us to join with God in shaping the hearts of our sons, but also because it keeps us connected to His heart, shaping us into the kind of parents HE wants us to be—we make time for it. So really, the greatest obstacle to overcome is how important, or unimportant, we believe prayer really is.

What has been the biggest answer to your own “mama prayers”?

I actually touched on this in Praying for Boys, although I didn’t refer to it as my big answer to prayer. We went through a very hard season with our boys during the first part of 2012. We homeschool, and my youngest son, then in Kindergarten, grew bored with his curriculum within about a month. What should have been a sweet, playful first year of school for him quickly turned into a nightmare. He would tantrum every single time I mentioned that it was time to start school. Every day was a battle, and in early November, after another horrible day, I sat down in my family room chair and told God I was giving up. I’m not sure I prayed anything more specific than, “God, what do I do? Will he EVER learn to obey? Will he EVER stop tantruming all the time?”

As I sat there, weeping and telling God, “I quit!” He dropped the memory of a Bible story into my heart. I opened my Bible, re-read the story, and God met me in a powerful way. I essentially felt like He was telling me that my boys needed someone to fight for them, and that He had chosen that person to be me. I heard Him whispering to my heart, “don’t give up on him. He needs you not to give up.” It wasn’t like God gave me a specific answer to a specific prayer. Nothing really changed about our situation. But my heart had changed. I was encouraged to keep going, and felt less like a failure and more like a fighter. That 30 minute prayer session has done more to energize me as a mom and child of God than anything else that’s happened to me since.

Praying for boys not only changes them, it changes moms too. How has it changed you?

Do you remember from grade school math that any time you change one part of an equation, it changes the answer? So for example, if you’re adding 2 + 3 and get 5, and then read the word problem again and realize you should’ve been adding 3 + 3, you can’t expect the answer to still be 5. Something changed. And when even just one thing changes, it affects everything else…changes everything else, even if just a little. Praying keeps me in the right place with God. Keeping my mind focused on the fact that He is God and I am not helps me put all of life in perspective, and it changes the way I live my days. Ultimately, spending time talking to God brings me closer to Him, and helps me know Him better. There’s no better way to be a better mom than to get to know God better, and listen to Him as He directs our paths. As we change, our families will change too.

Thanks Brooke for visiting with us today!

Now, to be entered in the giveaway, tell us about the boys you pray for.

99 Comments

  1. I have 2 wonderful boys to pray for. 21, 11, and 9. Different prayers for each on the surface, but the same underneath.

  2. I pray daily for my 3 boys! My oldest is 16 and my youngest is 14. The other “boy” I lift up is the one I’ve been blessed to be married to for 18 years!

  3. Interesting how I just finished a heated discussion with my 21 year old. It is much less trying when we discuss more “neutral” topics, but when more “personal” issues are discussed, it is so hard. Our other son is 23 years old where the concern is about his walk with the Lord.

  4. I pray for my husband….my oldest son, 11 and my youngest son, 5…the 3 absolute loves of my life…I have two books that guide me daily and am looking forward to have another book to pray for my boys…I always wanted boys….I need to pray for myself a little more…that I am a godly rolemodel for them and I pray pray pray they will always come back home….boys after they are married don’t always…I pray I am blessed with wonderful daughter-n-laws that will be like my own…

  5. There are other boys besides my own I pray for, but the ones that are most on my mind and heart are the two boys that God allowed me to give birth to. My youngest will be turning 5 next week & my oldest is 6 (7 in the spring). I worry & pray & love & some days I lose it & am so grouchy or sharp with them I feel like a failure….and yet… God is still there in all the messy parts of life and he has thus far protected my boys spiritually, physically,socially & mentally and for this I am most thankful. I am so grateful that God hears my prayers on behalf of my boys. God is so much bigger than the problems I bring to Him about the boys and He calms my heart like no other can do. I tend to be a worry type of mama yet God has helped me with the worry and has showed me that though I love my boys so much He loves them even more and they are His children too. What a great God I serve!!!

  6. I pray for my 2.5 yo grandson and his 3 month old brother, who I love beyond belief! They are my light.that the Lord so brightly shines!

  7. My son is 7 years old and he moved form a Christian school to a public school last year. Since then, he’s been outcasted & bullied. And he is a wonderful boy who loves his family & loves Jesus. Our next door neighbor, also 7, makes fun of my son for “having to go to Church on Sundays.” It breaks my heart daily that we moved him from such a “safe” place to where he is now.

  8. I pray for four boys, our sons. I just started a blog to catch the joys and challenges of all those boys. I have been praying for them since they were inside me! :). Thanks for offering this book!

  9. My son has had a close circle of friends since kindergarten. This “fab five” (as they are affectionately referred to by classmates) are now in their middle school years. I pray for my son, each of these boys…and their mothers. :)

  10. I pray for my two boys, ages 10 and 8; as well as my nephew who is 19. I LOVE the idea of this book and look forward to reading it, by winning it or not! Thank you for putting this out there for us, Karen!

  11. I’m praying for my 6 grandsons, ages 7, 7, 7, 6, 3, &18 months! (These are from 2 different daughters–two 7’s in one family as one is a foster child being adopted–as is the 18 month old brother as well) . Having had 2 girls, acquiring grandsons has been a challenge. They’re a lot noisier & rambunctious & not normally as cuddly as my granddaughters! I will look forward to reading this book as I pray for my grandchildren (11 altogether) everyday. I especially pray Scripture for them–it is the best thing ever that I can do for them!

  12. I’m praying for my 20 year old son-actually he’s my stepson (but I’ve never been able to call him that…doesn’t feel right for us!) He’s in this world of self and what He wants and not having any passion for things of God. I know he know’s God and I believe his heart has been touched by God, but my prayer for him is that he would Truly Know God and have a Passion for Him and His Glory. I have been honored to walk this life with this young man and I know God brought not only my husband but this young boy (11 at the time) to show His love to them. I am grateful that I call him Son!

  13. I have been praying for 7, 3, and 1 year old boys! My oldest is just like me – needing to be in control, but struggle with completion. My middle son is still trying to figure out where he fits in the picture – one moment he wants to be a big boy like his big brother, the next he wants to be a baby just like his little brother. My youngest has had many health issues that we have been praying for for over a year now. God has answered many of our prayers and for that we are grateful, but we still have some unanswered concerns that we know, in due time, he will answer.

  14. Although they are both grown and out of the nest, I still pray for our two sons. And I pray for our grandson, too.

  15. I pray for my almost 9 year old son, who is my youngest child. He has 3 older sisters (ages 11, 14, & 17), so I pray for the boys they may marry.

  16. I pray for my 3-year-old son, Caleb, who’s name means “strong and forceful”. He has certainly been living up to his name! Caleb is just as much the sugar in my coffee, as he is a lesson in patience! I pray that Jesus is his heart’s desire and that he will use his strong will to fight the good fight. I think of how he is my one and only son, and how unthinkable it would be to allow his suffering and death for the good of all mankind. Having Caleb has greatly deepened my relationship with the Father of my Savior!

  17. I have a 3 1/2 year old boy and a 3 week old boy. When my 3 y/o is sweet he’s the sweetest kid you’ll ever find but if things don’t go his way, watch out! He can throw some massive tantrums. I pray he will learn to adjust to disappointments in life and harness his frustrations. My 3 week old was born 4 1/2 weeks early and spent 10 days in NICU with 2 of those days on a ventilator. I prayed for him before he was born but from the moment I headed to the hosptial to deliver my prayers for him became fervent. I’m just learning how to be a mom to boys.

  18. I pray for my two sons, 5 and 3 years old now, and we pray together at bedtime every night. My biggest prayer for them is “God, help me to raise them up in the way they should go so that they’ll never depart from it!” God has truly blessed me with wonderful boys. I love that there is another mama out there with two boys who is encouraging the rest of us – will definitely be checking out these resources!

  19. I am and have prayed that my sons (29 and 27) be godly men in their daily walk, their jobs and with any one they encounter throughout each day. The oldest is married and has a 7 month old son; I pray that he and his wife are godly parents to their son. I pray for my youngest son to meet a godly woman. My husband and I are blessed to see the men they have become however know that we can not stop praying for them.

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